Beginner's Guide to Watching a Weightlifting Meet

Rarely will you see a weightlifting meet on television, even during the Olympic Games.  But just in case you do find your self watching ESPN at 3 am and there are no ping pong matches to televise, here is a quick guide to understanding a meet.

Weight Classes

 A wonderful thing about weightlifting is that it has weight classes.  In a sport where the goal is to lift heavy weight over your head, it would be discouraging to compete against people much heavier. There are eight male divisions and seven female divisions for adults. The men's classes are:

• 56 kg (123 lb)
• 62 kg (137 lb)
• 69 kg (152 lb)
• 77 kg (170 lb)
• 85 kg (187 lb)
• 94 kg (207 lb)
• 105 kg (231 lb)
• and over 105 kg;

And the women's are:

• 48 kg (106 lb)
• 53 kg (117 lb)
• 58 kg (128 lb)
• 63 kg (139 lb)
• 69 kg (152 lb)
• 75 kg (165 lb)
• and over 75 kg

Age Groups

In order to encourage more people to compete there are multiple age groups classifications.  They can be rather confusing because they tend to overlap a bit.  Youth is from ages 13-17, Junior is 15-20, Senior is greater than 15, and Masters level is age 35 and up.  Within the Masters division, participants are divided every 5 years. 

Ascending bar weight

During a lifter’s weigh in, he will supply the judge with his opening attempts for the two lifts.  Once the competition or session begins, the bar is set at the lowest projected snatch weight for all lifters in that session.  From this point on, the weight on the bar never goes back down, but rather keeps rising. 

What you will see on the platform

In most cases, each lifter in the meet is given three attempts at the snatch and three at the clean and jerk.  The heaviest successful lift from each will be combined for your meet total.  If your best snatch of all three attempted is 100 kg, and your best clean and jerk is 120 kg, then your total of course is 220 kg. 

Warm-up room

Backstage from the main platform(s) is often a whole slough of platforms, bars, weights for the lifters to warm-up with.  Sometimes you will have your own and sometimes you will have to share equipment.  I can’t speak for big time meets, but the ones I have lifted in, most people are very nice and helpful.  I have even traded training advice with other lifters backstage. 

A few rules to watch for

This is the Cliff Notes version of what to look for in the lifts.  In the snatch, the barbell must be taken from the floor to overhead in one quick motion.  As it arrives overhead, it must be caught with completely straight elbows.  If a lifter fails to catch the weight overhead with locked elbows and must “press it out”, at least a majority of the three judges will discount the lift.  The clean is usually not discounted unless an elbow touches a knee or the athlete’s rear end touches the platform at the bottom position.  The same rules apply in the jerk as in the snatch concerning a “press out”.