Shi Zhiyong

Shi Zhiyong (born October 10th, 1993) is a Chinese weightlifter, two-time Olympic Champion, three-time World Champion, and four-time Asian Champion. He competed in the 69 kg category until 2018 and has been competing in the 73 kg category since the International Weightlifting Federation reorganized the weight classes. He was born Shi Lei but his coach Than Xugang renamed him after the former Olympic Champion Shi Zhiyong to inspire greatness in him. 

He holds the current world record in the -73 kg class for the snatch and has set a whopping 13 world records throughout his career. Although he’s faced some pretty intense competition, he has consistently dominated his weight categories and has won numerous gold medals in major international competitions. Thanks to his incredible strength and technique, he’s one of the premier weightlifters in the world. 

His Olympic journey started at the 2016 Summer Olympics in the 69 kg category where he won second place after the snatch portion, trailing Daniyar Ismayilov by just one kg. However, Shi surpassed Ismayilov in the clean and jerk and lifted 190 kg, 2 kg more than Ismayilov. Shi secured a total of 352 kg and won the Olympic gold medal. 

In the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, he competed in the 73 kg category and set Olympic records in both the snatch (166 kg) and the clean and jerk (198 kg), which also set a new world record. This victory made him an Olympic champion in two weight categories. 

As far as his World Championship career goes, it started in 2015 when he competed in his first World Championships. He finished third in the snatch but won the gold medal in the clean and jerk with a lift of 190 kg, which gave him a total of 348 kg, so he got gold for the total as well. In 2018, after the weight classes were reorganized, he competed in the 73 kg category and set a new world record in the snatch with a 164 kg lift. He also set a new world record in the clean and jerk with a 196 kg lift and won gold medals in all lifts, finishing with a total of 360 kg. 

He was the heavy favorite at the 2019 World Weightlifting Championships, where he got the gold medal in the snatch with his first lift of 160 kg and improved to 166 kg with the following lifts. In the clean and jerk, he won gold with a world record lift of 197 kg and set a new world record total of 363 kg.