[[Image:Clean%26jerk.jpg|thumb|220px|An athlete pauses in between the two phases of the clean and jerk event.]]
'''Weightlifting''' has been an [[Olympic]] [[sport]] since the first modern games in [[Athens]] in 1896.<ref>http://www.olympic.org/uk/sports/programme/index_uk.asp?SportCode=WL</ref>. Athletes compete to see who can lift the heaviest weights (in the form of a metal bar with heavy weights on each end). Both men and women compete, and there are several weight divisions for each gender.
Olympic weightlifting has two events:
* '''Clean and jerk''', where the bar is first lifted to just beneath the chin, and then lifted above the head after a short pause.
Participants compete in both disciplines (with the weights being increased in a similar way to the raising of the bar in a [[athletics|high jump]] competition), and add their best scores in each. The man or woman with the highest combined total is the winner.<ref>http://www.iwf.net/</ref>.
The world record for weightlifting in the men's super-heavyweight division is 472kg 472 kg (over 1000lb1000 lb), set at the Olympic Games in [[Sydney]] in 2000.<ref>http://www.olympic.org/uk/sports/records/results_uk.asp</ref>. This is about as heavy as two fully-grown male [[lions]].<ref>http://www.lioncrusher.com/animal.asp?animal=59</ref>.
Countries who usually perform well in weightlifting include [[China]] and many [[Eastern Europe]]an and former [[Soviet]] states.