Organisers say 2028 Los Angeles Olympics will include weightlifting

"This is confirmed! Five new events added to the 2028 Olympics, all of which will be gold medal winners for the United States. Weightlifting has been cancelled for now," read a traditional Chinese Facebook post shared on August 20, 2024.

The post showed photos of the Olympic rings near the Eiffel Tower and of Chinese weightlifter Li Fabin, who retained his Olympic title in Paris in the men's 61-kg (archived link).

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Screenshot of the false Facebook post, captured on August 29, 2024

Team China racked up 40 gold medals in Paris, level with the United States, in their best performance at an overseas Olympics. However, it trailed its geopolitical rival in the overall medal count (archived link).

Some fans declared China the true winners, if medals won by the Chinese special administrative region of Hong Kong and self-ruled Taiwan were included. Many similar posts included images of an adjusted medal table with medals won by Hong Kong and Taiwan added to the Chinese total.

The claim that weightlifting -- in which Chinese athletes took half of the 10 golds on offer -- would be dropped from the next Olympics was shared elsewhere on Facebook, WeChat, Douyin and content aggregators Sohu and NetEase (archived link).

While five new sports have been added to the Los Angeles Games, weightlifting has not been dropped (archived link).

IOC approval

The IOC announced weightlifting would be part of the 2028 Games in a press release published on its website on October 16, 2023 (archived link).

Weightlifting had not been included in the 28 sports proposed in Los Angeles' Initial Sports Programme in December 2021, but the IOC said it "may potentially be included" if it addressed areas of concern including its anti-doping safeguards (archived link).

Mohammed Jalood, president of the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF), the sport's governing body, told AFP on August 10 that the IOC had "decided to confirm the inclusion of our beloved sport in the programme of the 2028 Olympic Games".

IWF spokesman Pedro Adrega told AFP on August 28 that claims the sport had been dropped were "totally false."

Adrega directed AFP to an article about weightlifting's inclusion published on the IWF's website on October 16, 2023 (archived link).

Weightlifting has its own page on the official website of the Los Angeles Olympics and will be held at the Peacock Theater (archived link).

AFP has debunked other misinformation related to the Olympic Games here.