At this summer's Tokyo Olympics, the Chinese delegation won 38 gold medals, tying the best results of overseas Olympic Games. Among them, in the weightlifting project, the Chinese team participated in 8 projects and won 7 gold and 1 silver, which also created the best in the past. However, according to the latest news from the International Lifting Federation, the next Paris Olympic Games, weightlifting gold medals will be reduced from 14 to 10, which is undoubtedly a huge blow to the Chinese weightlifting team.
As we all know, the Chinese weightlifting team, the diving team and the table tennis team are called the "dream team" by the outside world, because these three teams have won the largest total number of Olympic gold medals. Among them, the weightlifting team has won 41 gold medals so far, second only to the diving team and ahead of the table tennis team. The weightlifting team has always felt very stable, and there are almost 1-2 world top players in each event. In other words, if it is not a limit on the number of participants, weightlifting can also be the same as diving and table tennis, winning the championship and runner-up.
At this year's Tokyo Olympics, the Chinese weightlifting team sent 4 men and 4 women to participate in 8 events, achieving a good result of 7 gold and 1 silver, and only failed to win gold in the women's 55 kg competition. In fact, there are 14 individual events in the Tokyo Olympic weightlifting competition, but in order to prevent the situation of one dominant one, the International Lifting Federation stipulates that each participating team can only register for a maximum of 8 events. Compared with the Rio Olympics five years ago, this has actually lost 2 of our competitions. But in the next Olympic Games, it will continue to decrease.
According to the confirmation of Agapitov, executive committee of the International Lifting Federation and president of the Russian Weightlifting Association, the total number of weightlifting gold medals in the 2024 Paris Olympic Games will be reduced from 14 to 10, and each participating team can only register for a maximum of 6 events. This also means that the advantages of China's weightlifting team have once again been reduced.
It is worth mentioning that after adjustment, the Chinese team has 4 championships in the single event, which has been cancelled. They are Wang Zhouyu's women's 87 kg class, Li Wenwen's women's 87 kg or more, Chen Lijun's 67 kg class, and Lü Xiaojun's 81 kg class.
Among them, Wang Zhouyu's project was adjusted to 81 kg class, Li Wenwen was above 81 kg class; Chen Lijun and Lü Xiaojun were more embarrassed, Chen Lijun either gained 6 kg to compete with Shi Zhiyong (73 kg class), or lost 6 kg and Li Fabin (61 kg class) to fight. According to the words of the god of war, either gain 8 kg to participate in the 89 kg class, or lose 8 kg to participate in the 73 kg class. And 3 years later, Lu Xiaojun, who is 40 years old, can persist is still a question mark.
The reduction in the number of entries means that before the Paris Olympics have even started, we have lost 2 gold points. Moreover, more pressure is yet to come. Previously, the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic Games initially announced 28 major events, of which weightlifting has been temporarily excluded. This shows that after 7 years, the weightlifting project is likely to disappear completely and withdraw from the Olympic stage!