On April 20, Beijing time, the International Olympic Committee released the qualification plan for weightlifting at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, before which it was determined that the total number of gold medals was reduced to 5 for men and women, and once again limited the number of participants of each Olympic Committee: each team can send up to 3 men and women, and each level is limited to 1 person.
After this news came out, the blow to the Chinese team was the biggest, which meant that the National Olympic Committee could only win a maximum of 6 weightlifting gold medals. You know, weightlifting has always been the chinese delegation's gold medal, and has won 38 gold medals. Since the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games, every session has won hardware, the 2004 Athens Olympic Games also won hardware, the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games won 8 gold medals, the best result; the 2012 London Olympic Games and the 2016 Rio Olympic Games, both won 5 gold medals; last year's Tokyo Olympic Games, won 7 gold medals.
This reform also has some recognition, because weightlifting does not seem to be a very good project, and the damage to the players is also very large. In the Paris Olympic Games, there were five levels for men and women, of which 5 classes for men were divided into 61 kg, 73 kg, 89 kg, 102 kg and 102 kg or more, and 5 women's classes were 49 kg, 59 kg, 71 kg, 81 kg and 81 kg.
With this adjustment, it also means that many players will be forced to change their level, gain weight or lose weight. These levels are also a bit troublesome for China, except for the women's 59 kg, which still have an advantage, and the rest of the levels need to be changed. For example, Chen Lijun, Lü Xiaojun, Wang Zhouyu and Liao Qiuyun, who won the gold medal at the Tokyo Olympic Games, all face the choice of changing the level. Among them, Lu Xiaojun, who has won three consecutive championships, was previously in the 81 kg class, and now this level is gone, and he can only choose between 73 and 89.
In addition to the big change in level, there are fewer participants, and the Tokyo Olympics are 5 people each for men and women, and only one person can participate in each event. In the Paris Olympic Games, only 3 men and women were left to participate, which was invisibly weakened. Next, the Chinese weightlifting team will have to readjust and focus on these new levels, and need to show competitiveness, after all, men and women can only choose 3 levels to participate.