Light-Heavyweight (≤85 kilograms), Men

Greece’s Pyrros Dimas had won this class at the last three Olympics, but had missed most of the last few years with injuries and surgeries. He returned, attempting to become the first man to win four Olympic weightlifting gold medals, but it was not to be. The early leader was Belarussian Andrey Rybakov, who was so unheralded that he had lifted in the B group in the afternoon. Lifting that night, gold went to Georgi Asanidze of Georgia, the 2001 World Champion and 2002 European Champion. Asanidze lifted 177.5 kg in the snatch, trailing Rybakov’s 180.0 kg, but his clean & jerk of 205.0 kg brought him the title as Rybakov won an unlikely silver.

Dimas held on to win the bronze medal, making him only the fourth weightlifter to win four Olympic medals, after American Norb Schemansky (1948-64), German Ronny Weller (1988-2000), and Bulgarian/Croatian Nikolay Peshalov (1992-2004), who had won his fourth medal earlier in Athinai.