Olympics crowns the world’s strongest man but weightlifting’s lasting problem endures

Lasha Talakhadze is now unbeaten in nine years, but the sport, over a 10-year period to 2019, has sanctioned 565 weightlifters for doping offences

Lasha Talakhadze of Georgia competes during the men's +102kg weightlifting (AP)

Ancient Greek weightlifter Bybon went down in history for the feat of lifting a 150kg stone, Milo of Croton built his strength by carrying a growing cow up a hill for weeks and now there is Lasha Talakhadze.

Talakhadze admits he can’t remember what it was like to lose, just as his rivals have seemingly lost all knowledge of how to win.

When it comes to the big men of the Olympics, Georgian weightlifter Talakhadze has simply no peers.

The world’s strongest man claimed his third Olympic title with another display of dominance in Paris, his unbeaten run now nine years and counting.

Talakhadze, 6ft 6in and tipping the scales at nearly 28 stone, lifted significantly more than that to edge out Armenia’s Varazdat Malayan as the big men took centre stage.

You’ll find plenty of tantrums and tears at the weightlifting and the bigger they are the seemingly more emotional they get.

“It’s the most valuable medal in my sports career and the most important in my life,” said Talakhadze.

“I feel very emotional, it’s a very emotional moment in my life. This has been the most difficult tournament for me because I’ve had many injuries before the Olympics. I didn’t know this was possible but I tried to believe.

“I will now just try to feel this happiness and if my physical capabilities allow it, of course, I will definitely continue in this sport.

“It was my highest wish and my great desire to obtain the third gold medal. I am looking for a fourth now.”

Lasha Talakhadze of Georgia competes during the men's +102kg weightlifting (AP)

Three years ago in Tokyo, Talakhadze smashed the Olympic record with a remarkable 488kg across the sport’s two elements; the snatch - a lift in one singular motion - and the clean and jerk, in which the weight is lifted first to the chest and then thrust upwards.

In Paris, Talakhadze failed his opening snatch attempt at 210kg, the first time he’d dropped an attempt at the Olympics, the shock causing one Georgian journalist to pound the desk in frustration and spend several minutes with his head buried in his hands.

However, he was successful at 215kg and his best clean and jerk, 255kg, put him a combined seven kilograms ahead of his nearest rival.

His winning total was 470kg, down on his Tokyo high but good enough to see off the all-comers after his crown.

Lasha Talakhadze of Georgia with Silver medalist Varazdat Lalayan of Armenia and bronze medalist Gor Minasyan of Bahrein (EPA)

Weightlifting is a sport caught in a metric and imperial hellscape, especially when watching from a country that likes to quantify weight in bags of sugar.

So, think of Talakhadze’s feat as lifting a tenth of a hippopotamus or the equivalent of 150 bricks, 6714 croissants or 2473 Croque monsieurs.

His unbeaten run now stretches back to the World Championships in 2015, taking gold but only after original winner Aleksey Lovchev failed a doping test for growth hormone Ipamorelin.

And that’s the problem with weightlifting, seeing is believing but often it pays not to believe what you see.

Three years ago, Talakhadze was the subject of a German TV documentary Secret Doping – Lord of the Lifters, in which it was claimed he’d not been tested out of competition, an allegation strenuously denied by the Georgian Weightlifting Federation.

Lasha Talakhadze of Team Georgia performs a clean and jerk (Getty Images)

In a 10-year period to 2019, 565 weightlifters were sanctioned for doping offences, including Talakhadze, those Worlds in Houston in 2015 were his first major competition after a two-year ban for the use of anabolic steroid Stanozolol as a teenager.

Weightlifting has had plenty of final warnings from the International Olympic Committee about getting its house in order on doping but seems to get more licence than any other sport, it’s great TV and tickets are always among the first to sell out.

Between new sample analyses and the concealment of test results, over 30 weightlifters who made in the podium in Beijing and London Games have now been disqualified and stripped of their medals.

The sport, along with boxing, are the problem children of these Games, weightlifting only allowed its place in LA in four years after a series of sweeping governance reforms, though athlete numbers here in Paris have more than halved on the number from eight years ago.

However, as a visual spectacle it is sport at its purest.

Watching an athlete stretch every sinew, temples pulsing, to explosively thrust the weight above their head is breathless stuff.

Georgia's Lasha Talakhadze competes in the men's +102kg weightlifting event (AFP via Getty Images)

And it’s not all about brawn but brains too, mental fortitude is required, a self-belief that even the most crushing of burdens can be overcome.

And there is none better than Talakhadze, a genius in a deeply flawed sport.

Watch every moment of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 live only on discovery+, the streaming home of the Olympics.