Middleweight (≤75 kilograms), Men

This was expected to be a competition between two Bulgarians – Borislav Gidikov, the 1987 World Champion, and Aleksander Varbanov, the 1985-86 World Champion and the world record holder. However, Gidikov won easily, with the best lifts in both the snatch and clean & jerk, while Varbanov won the bronze medal, trailing East German Ingo Steinhöfel. Steinhöfel would compete at four more Olympics, 1992-2004, representing re-unified Germany, but never managed another medal. The eighth-place finisher in Seoul was American Tony Urrutia, who had competed at the 1976 Olympics representing his native country, Cuba, before defecting to the United States. He was World Champion in this class in 1977-79 but defected at a tournament in Mexico City in early 1980 and did not compete at Moskva.