Paris 2024 Olympics: Lasha Talakhadze wins third-straight heavyweight weightlifting title

The Georgian remained unbeaten in major championships since his first world title in 2015, but unusually he had to come from behind.

In the clean and jerk, Talakhadze delivered when he had to, wheeling and wobbling round the stage on his second lift before locking his arms and settling his feet to secure a total of 470kg. | Photo Credit: Getty Images

Lasha Talakhadze retained his iron grip on the title of “world’s strongest man” as he won a third straight Olympic heavyweight gold on Saturday.

The Georgian remained unbeaten in major championships since his first world title in 2015, but unusually he had to come from behind.

Gor Minasyan, an Olympic medallist for Armenia in 2016 but representing Bahrain in Paris, lifted 1kg more in the snatch half of the competition.

In the clean and jerk, Talakhadze delivered when he had to, wheeling and wobbling round the stage on his second lift before locking his arms and settling his feet to secure a total of 470kg.

Varazdat Lalayan of Armenia tried to pass that but failed and finished second, 3kg back.

Minasyan was third.

Saturday’s earlier medallists talked of the sacrifices they had to make to adapt to the changing Olympic weight categories -- either battling to cut weight or gorging to pack it on.

Dieting is irrelevant in the top weight class. The floor may have dropped from 109 kilogrammes in Tokyo to 102kg in Paris, but for the behemoths in the final that change is irrelevant.

Talakhadze weighed in for the Olympics at 178.45kg (393lbs). The lightest competitor was Ali Ammar Rubaiawa of Iraq, a stripling, who, less than a week after turning 20, weighed in at 134.85kg.

In Paris, weightlifting has four fewer gold medals. To cope the weights have moved further apart, forcing lifters to make tough decisions.

Saturday’s first champion Liu Huanhua described the “torture” of piling on the pounds as he stepping up several weight classes.

Liu lifted 406kg, 7kg short of his own world record in the 102kg class, the second heaviest for men.

Liu explained he had to “stuff a lot into my stomach” to make the 21kg jump from 81kg.

“It was comfortable at the beginning because I had plenty to eat. There were a lot of things I was afraid to eat in the past,” he said.

“My weight increased to 98 kg and then stopped. I had to stuff a lot into my stomach. There was a lot of fat so I had to increase cardio training -- a lot of running and cycling. It was torture.”

Akbar Djuraev of Uzbekistan finished 2kg behind Liu with Yauheni Tsikhantsou, a Belarusian competing in Paris as a neutral athlete, took bronze.

In the woman’s 81-kilogramme class, Solfrid Koanda of Norway won with a total of 275kg, 7kg ahead of Sara Ahmed of Egypt who edged Ecuadorian Neisi Dajomes by 1kg.

- ‘Completely new’ -

Koanda had come down from the 87kg category.

“For me changing weight was something completely new,” she said. “I had to work on getting stronger but also on losing weight. It was personally very hard.”

She said she trained at a weight above 81kg.

“When the cut has to come it is difficult,” she said.

Both Ecuador’s Dajomes and Uzbekistan’s Djuraev won golds in Tokyo in weight categories that no longer exist. They had to settle for lesser medals at their new weights.

Dajomes had bulked up from 76kg.

“It’s been really difficult,” she said. “You have to work with a new lift, with a new weight, and that caused me a lot of injuries.”

Djuraev flirted with moving up to to battle the giants at heavyweight before slimming down from 109kg.

“It was a little difficult to lose the weight,” he said. “That’s why I won the silver medal.”