Albania (ALB)

Albania’s National Olympic Committee was founded in 1958, and recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) on 25 May 1959 at the IOC session in Munich, but Albania did not compete at the Olympics until 1972. Albania then did not compete again at the Olympics for 20 years, returning in 1992. Albania has not won any medals. It has competed at the Olympic Winter Games continuously since 2006. Albania has had fairly good weightlifters and a few of their lifters have emigrated to Greece, and competed for that nation at the Olympics, notably Pyrros Dimas, who was born in Albania, but won gold medals for Greece in weightlifting in 1996-2000-2004, and a bronze medal in 2008. The best result for athletes representing Albania is a fifth place, which has happened three times in weightlifters: in 2000 from Ilirjan Suli in the middleweight class; in 2008 by Romela Begaj in women’s lightweight class; and in 2016 from Briken Calja in the lightweight class.