(Sydney) Even with a field severely whittled down by injuries and withdrawals, the men's 77-kg category in weightlifting at the Olympics still produced a lot of excitement and when the dust had settled, China's Zhan Xugang emerged as the winner. Zhan won the gold medal with his second attempt clean and jerk, 207.5 kg for a new Olympic record in the jerk. Zhan wowed the crowd with his trademark rock bottom squat jerk, which never looked in doubt. Viktor Mitrou (GRE) had totaled the same 367.5 as Zhan, but was heavier, so he won the silver medal, and Arsen Melikyan (ARM) won the bronze with a 365 kg total.

Earlier, the women's +75-kg category matched the giants Ding Meiyuan (CHN) and Agata Wrobel (POL), who duked it out and shattered records left and right in their battle for the gold medal. In the end, Ding prevailed, with 135/165 to Wrobel's 132.5/162.5. Cheryl Haworth (USA) won the bronze with 125/145.