World Weightlifting Championships


The World Weightlifting Championships is an international weightlifting competition, currently held annually by the International Weightlifting Federation. The predecessor organization of the IWF was founded in 1905, but World Championship events began before its foundation. The first recognized World Championship event was held in 1891, and was won by Edward Lawrence Levy of England.
Athletes today compete in a total of 16 weight categories :
  • Men categories: 60 kg, 65 kg, 71 kg, 79 kg, 88 kg, 94 kg, 110 kg and +110 kg.
  • Women categories: 48 kg, 53 kg, 58 kg, 63 kg, 69 kg, 77 kg, 86 kg and +86 kg.

Competitions

Men

  • The weightlifting tournaments held during Summer Olympics in 1964, 1968, 1972, 1976, 1980 and 1984 are counted as World Weightlifting Championships of the corresponding year.

All-time medal table

Total

All-time big medal count below updated after the 2025 World Weightlifting Championships.

Big and small medals

All-time big and small medal count below updated after the 2025 World Weightlifting Championships.

Multiple medalists

The table shows those who have won at least 5 gold medals in total result. Boldface denotes active weightlifters and highest medal count among all weightlifters per type.
RankWeightlifterCountryGenderWeightsFromToGoldSilverBronzeTotal
1Vasily AlekseyevURS|1955