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If you’re a longtime fan of weightlifting, you know Liao Hui. For the newcomers, Liao was Shi Zhiyong before Shi Zhiyong—Team China’s go-to middleweight contender on the international stage, a multi-world record holder…you get the idea.
Liao won gold in Beijing and last competed in 2015. When the 69KG division was retired in 2018, he held all three world records.
- History Lesson: The Shi we know and love was actually given his name as an homage to a former Team China competitor. Shi Zhiyong, born 1980, won gold at Athens 2004 with a 325KG Total at 62. His heaviest result ever was 350KG at 69. He retired after bombing out in Beijing.
Liao’s best Total in competition? 359KG (166/193) at 69, done at the 2014 World Championships.
In his last international appearance, Liao competed at the 2015 IWF Grand Prix in the 77KG category, weighing 73. He snatched 170 and jerked 190.
- Going Deeper: Liao also cleaned 211 for a world record attempt—a weight teammate Lu Xiaojun would try several times during his career. In 2001, Russia’s Oleg Perepetchenov jerked 210. That record technically still holds, since Nijat Rahimov’s infamous 214 from Rio was invalidated after he failed a drug test.
On Reddit, we got a glimpse at Liao’s pre-Beijing training plan, courtesy of a translated post by /u/AdRemarkable3043. The original source is an academic paper co-authored by longtime Team China mastermind Yu Jie.
It’s worth reading in full, but here are some highlights:
- Liao began peaking for Beijing roughly 8 weeks prior to competition. He was given a longer than average runway to make up for his lack of experience at the time.
- Liao was required to make at least 80% of all lifts in training.
- 80 to 90% intensity was considered “medium,” where Liao made the most productive gains.
- His weekly tonnage (the cumulative amount of weight lifted across all main exercises) consistently tallied roughly 13,000KG.
- Liao performed the classic snatch and clean & jerk twice per week, leaning heavily on accessories and variations.
In context: The author compared Liao’s tonnage to that of Karlos Nasar, referencing our interview with Karlos from earlier this year. Karlos was estimated to move at least double the amount of weight over the course of a training week.
Liao was banned for use of the anabolic steroid boldenone for two years in 2010. In 2013, All Things Gympublished a translated interview with Liao, in which he discussed how the sanction impacted the trajectory of his career.
We Have Our First World Record, and It's Not Team China
Hampton Morris is ahead of the curve. At the 2025 Pan-American Weightlifting Championships (PAWC), Morris claimed the first world record of the new divisions.
- Remind Me: In June, the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) effected its new batch of weight classes, and also published their world standards. Any athlete who wants to get into the record books must beat the existing standard by at least one kilogram.
Morris clean & jerked 181KG, one kilogram above the standard in the 65KG class. He attempted 186 to nab the Total record as well, but couldn’t stick the jerk.
Why we’re not surprised: Senior world records by American male weightlifters are quite rare—the last to do so before Morris was Bob Bednarski in 1969—but Hamp is a bonafide clean & jerk specialist.
- Out of his last 10 IWF appearances, Morris has won gold in the clean & jerk 8 times.
- He won silver in the jerk at the 2023 IWF Grand Prix II, and came 9th at Worlds in ‘22, both while still a Junior.
- Over his last five international meets, he’s averaged an 8th-place finish in the snatch.
The big question: Is Morris the man to beat in the 65s this quad? He’s on top now, but it might not stay that way.
Remember—early in the last quad, Li Dayin looked like a sure thing for Team China in Paris. We all know how that turned out.
One last thing: The Karlos Nasar "I Win, You Lose" capsule collection is live now. We worked with Karlos on three items that he'll use to set more world records. Get yours and be part of the journey.
