Weightlifting at the 1972 Summer Olympics

Dates 27 August – 6 September 1972
Medal Events 9

The 1972 weightlifting events were held at the Gewichtheberhalle, or the Weightlifting Hall, in München. Technically this was Hall 7 of the Messegelände, or Fairgrounds, in the München Olympic Park. Weightlifting was the only sport contested in Hall 7.

There was a change in the weightlifting program with two new classes added. These were the flyweight class for lifters ≤52 kg in weight, and a class termed heavyweight, for lifters ≤100 kg. The heavyweight class was intermediate between middle-heavyweight, and the heaviest class, which was given the new name of super-heavyweight. This was also the last Olympics in which there were three lifts, as the military press would be eliminated from international lifting prior to the 1976 Olympics.

There were nine classes, with the Soviet Union and Bulgaria both winning three classes, but Bulgaria won the most medals, with six. This was the first Olympics at which Bulgaria stepped forward as a weightlifting power. It was also the first Olympics in which doping positives occurred in weightlifting, with two positives – Iran’s Arjomand Mohamed Nasehi in the flyweight class, and Austria’s Walter Legel in the lightweight class. The United States did not win a weightlifting medal in München, for the first time since the 1928 Olympics, and they would never again be a weightlifting power.

Events

Event Status Date Participants NOCs
Flyweight (≤52 kilograms), Men Olympic 27 August 1972 17 13
Bantamweight (≤56 kilograms), Men Olympic 28 August 1972 24 19
Featherweight (≤60 kilograms), Men Olympic 29 August 1972 13 11
Lightweight (≤67½ kilograms), Men Olympic 30 August 1972 22 18
Middleweight (≤75 kilograms), Men Olympic 31 August 1972 26 22
Light-Heavyweight (≤82½ kilograms), Men Olympic 2 September 1972 24 21
Middle-Heavyweight (≤90 kilograms), Men Olympic 3 September 1972 23 19
Heavyweight (≤110 kilograms), Men Olympic 4 September 1972 26 19
Super-Heavyweight (>110 kilograms), Men Olympic 6 September 1972 13 11
188 (188/0) 54 (54/0)

Medals

Event Gold Silver Bronze
Flyweight, Men Zygmunt SmalcerzPOL Lajos SzűcsHUN Sándor HolczreiterHUN
Bantamweight, Men Imre FöldiHUN Mohammad NassiriIRI Gennady ChetinURS
Featherweight, Men Norayr NurikyanBUL Dito ShanidzeURS János BenedekHUN
Lightweight, Men Mukharby KirzhinovURS Mladen KuchevBUL Zbigniew KaczmarekPOL
Middleweight, Men Yordan BikovBUL Mohamed Kheir TarabulsiLBN Anselmo SilvinoITA
Light-Heavyweight, Men Leif JensenNOR Norbert OzimekPOL György HorváthHUN
Middle-Heavyweight, Men Andon NikolovBUL Atanas ShopovBUL Hans BettembourgSWE
Heavyweight, Men Jaan TaltsURS Aleksandar KraychevBUL Stefan GrütznerGDR
Super-Heavyweight, Men Vasily AlekseyevURS Rudolf MangFRG Gerd BonkGDR

Medal table

NOC Gold Silver Bronze Total
Bulgaria BUL 3 3 0 6
Soviet Union URS 3 1 1 5
Hungary HUN 1 1 3 5
Poland POL 1 1 1 3
Norway NOR 1 0 0 1
Islamic Republic of Iran IRI 0 1 0 1
Lebanon LBN 0 1 0 1
West Germany FRG 0 1 0 1
East Germany GDR 0 0 2 2
Italy ITA 0 0 1 1
Sweden SWE 0 0 1 1