A maximum of eight athletes are allowed to compete per nation (four men and four women). Each nation may only have one athlete per weight class. The maximum number of athletes per nation may be limited due to anti-doping rule violations. If a nation had between 10 and 19 violations between the 2008 Summer Olympics and 2020 qualifications, the number of participants is limited to two men and two women. If there are 20 or more violations, the respective nation is only entitled to two quota places (one per gender).
The quota places are awarded to the respective athlete. The Japanese Olympic Committee can distribute the six quota places as a guest nation to the various weight classes. If Japanese weightlifters qualified through the leaderboard, the number of quota places they can host would decrease. This means that the hosts' quota places are only used if fewer than three men and three women from Japan would qualify. Unused places would be allocated via the world rankings.
Ranking list points can be achieved in different competitions, the competitions are of different valuation (results in a gold level competition are multiplied by 1.1, silver level by 1.05 and bronze level 1.0). The best results in each of the three periods (November 1, 2018 to April 30, 2019; May 1, 2019 to October 31, 2019; November 1, 2019 to April 30, 2020) will be considered along with the best overall result. To qualify, an athlete must have participated in at least one competition in each of the three periods. In addition, he must have participated in at least six competitions in total and in at least one gold level and one further gold or silver level competition. These restrictions have been relaxed for athletes who receive quota places in the host country (one competition and one gold or silver level competition) or a wildcard (two competitions in total, including at least one gold or silver level competition).
Weightlifting competitions at the 2020 Olympics
Ashgabat
Batumi
Ningbo
Guatemala City
Cairo
Havana
Suva
Chișinău
Apia
Pattaya
Pyongyang
Tehran
Nairobi
Lima
Tokyo
Serravalle
Olongapo City
