Middleweight (≤77 kilograms), Men

China’s Zhan Xugang had won this event in 2000 and in 1996 was Olympic gold medalist as a lightweight. He competed at Athinai but missed all his snatch attempts and was eliminated. The competition evolved into a battle between Turk Taner Sağır and Kazakh Sergey Filimonov. They both lifted 172.5 kg in the snatch with Sağır moving ahead with his clean & jerk of 202.5 kg. Filimonov lifted 200.0 kg but then failed on his final attempt with 205.0 kg, giving the gold medal to Sağır.

The bronze went to Russian Oleg Perepechenov and remained that way for nine years. However, in 2013, re-testing of the doping samples from Athinai revealed that Perepechenov had taken what was described only as a “funny substance” and he was retroactively disqualified, despite it being outside the 8-year statute of limitations set by WADA. This gave the bronze medal to Turkey’s Reyhan Arabacıoğlu who originally had only placed fourth over Greek Viktor Mitrou based on lower bodyweight.