Men's Weightlifting

Believed to be practiced by ancient Egyptians and Greeks, Weightlifting was made part of the modern Olympics in 1896 Athens Games and has been a regular feature since then (except for three games in 1900, 1908 and 1912). It is a sport that tests raw strength of an athlete and since its debut many great champions have left their mark like Naim Suleymanoglu and Halil Mutlu of Turkey who have won 3 gold medals each; Pyrros Dimas and Kakhi Kakhiasvilis of Greece who also have won 3 gold medals each; Imre Foldi (hungary) and Ronnie Weller and Ingo Steinhofel (Germany) for participating in 5 Olympic Games. As far as women's weightlifting is concerned, Chen Yanqing and Liu Chunhong (China) have won 2 gold medals each. However it's Hossein Reza Zadeh of Iran who holds the record of highest weight being lifted by any athlete - 472.5kg in +105kg event. In 2008 biejing Games, three new Olympic records were set by Yong Lu (China), Ilya Ilin (Kazakhstan), and Andrei Aramnau (Belarus) who lifted 394kg, 406kg, and 436kg of weights in 85kg, 94kg and 105kg events. In the 2012 London Games, 156 men will compete for the gold in as many as 15 events. The competition will be held at Excel Arena from 28th July to 7th August.