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Competitive weight lifting is believed to pre-date written history. There are records in many civilizations of feats of strength performed by great heroes, perhaps mythological, such as Heracles, Goliath, Orm Storolfsson and Milo of Croton. In Ancient China and Greece, men lifted stones to prove their strength and manhood. There is a tradition in Scotland of weight lifting competitions in Scottish Highland Gatherings, which have been annual events since the 1820s; and these contests are forerunners of modern strength athletics.
When in 1896 the modern international Olympic Games began, weight lifting was an event at the first Games; and since 1920 weightlifting has been a regular part of the Olympics. By 1932 the Olympic competition comprised three lifts, all of which are different ways of lifting a weighted barbell from ground to overhead: namely the snatch, the clean and jerk, and the clean and press. The snatch is a wide-grip lift, in which the barbell is lifted overhead in one motion. The clean and jerk and the clean and press are combination lifts in which the weight is first taken from the ground to the front of the shoulders (the clean), and then from the shoulders to overhead (the first using a jerk, the second an overhead press). After 1972 the clean and press was discontinued due to difficulties in judging proper form. Today, the snatch and the clean and jerk are together known as the "olympic lifts"; and the sport of weightlifting as practiced at the Olympics can be called "olympic weightlifting" or "olympic-style weightlifting" to distinguish it from other weightlifting sports (wherever it is practiced). Its international governing body is the International Weightlifting Federation, which was founded in 1905.
The 1950s and 1960s saw the sport of powerlifting developing, originating in competitions where athletes competed in different lifting events to those at the Olympics. These different lifts were sometimes called "odd lifts". Previously, the weightlifting governing bodies in the United Kingdom and the United States had recognized various "odd lifts" for competition and record purposes. Eventually these competitions became standardized to three specific lifts: the squat, bench press, and deadlift; and this form of weightlifting sport was given its distinct name of powerlifting, with the International Powerlifting Federation being formed in 1972 to regulate and promote the sport.[
In 1964 weightlifting debuted in the Paralympic Games, in the form of the bench press; and since the 1992 Games has been called powerlfiting, specifically Para powerlifting or Paralympic powerlifting
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weightlifting
https://physicalculturestudy.com/2014/11/18/an-early-history-of-wei...