In this biography
Quick facts
- Born
- 24 July 1989
- Birthplace
- Metro, Lampung
- Country
- Indonesia
- Nationality
- Indonesian
- Known for
- Winning medals at four consecutive Olympics and competing at five Games
- Olympic medals
- Four: two silver and two bronze
- Olympic appearances
- Five, 2008–2024
- World title
- 61 kg, 2018
- Historic first
- First Indonesian with four Olympic medals
- 2026 Asian Games
- Fourth, men’s 65 kg
Why this life matters
Eko’s longevity turned weightlifting into one of Indonesia’s most reliable Olympic sports and created a rare five-Games career.
Timeline
Key moments
Won junior world silver
Reached the international podium in the 56 kg category.
Won junior gold and senior bronze
Became a junior world champion and placed third at the senior worlds in Chiang Mai.
Won Olympic bronze
Earned his first Olympic medal in Beijing.
Won a second Olympic bronze
Placed third at London in the 62 kg category with a 317 kg total.
Won Olympic silver
Improved from bronze in London to silver in Rio.
Became world champion
Won the 61 kg total at the World Championships in Ashgabat.
Won a fourth Olympic medal
Took silver at the delayed Tokyo 2020 Games, becoming Indonesia’s first four-time Olympic medallist.
Reached a fifth Olympics
Lifted 135 kg in the snatch but missed all three clean and jerks in Paris.
Returned to a world podium
Won a 65 kg snatch bronze at the World Championships in Førde.
Placed fourth at the Asian Games
Finished just outside the 65 kg podium at Aichi-Nagoya.
From Lampung to international weightlifting
Eko Yuli Irawan was born in Metro, Lampung, in 1989. An account published by Indonesia’s Ministry of Youth and Sports says he first noticed weightlifting training in his hometown around 2000. The same account describes a family with limited means: his father drove a pedicab and his mother sold vegetables. These details help explain his stated motivation to support his parents, but they are not a substitute for his competition record.
He entered national training and made his international debut in 2006, taking silver at the junior world championships in the 56 kg class. In 2007 he won junior world gold in Prague and senior world bronze in Chiang Mai. The junior and senior podiums were different events; treating them as one world title would overstate the early record.
Four medals at four consecutive Olympics
At Beijing 2008, Irawan won Olympic bronze in the 56 kg class. Four years later he moved up to 62 kg and took another bronze in London with a 317 kg total. Silver followed in Rio 2016, and another silver at the Tokyo 2020 Games, which were held in 2021, made him the first Indonesian athlete with medals from four separate Olympics.
Those placements span changing weight categories and more than a decade of international competition. They are four Olympic medals, not four golds: the sequence is bronze, bronze, silver and silver. The distinction matters because his greatest championship victory came outside the Olympics.
The 2018 world championship
In Ashgabat in November 2018, Irawan won the 61 kg world championship. The International Weightlifting Federation records a 174 kg clean and jerk and a 317 kg total, both world-record marks at the event. He had also won Asian Games gold that year in Jakarta. The world title filled a gap in a résumé that already included three Olympic medals.
A weightlifting world championship can award separate medals in the snatch, clean and jerk, and combined total. For this biography, “world champion” refers to his 2018 total title; individual-lift medals are identified separately when relevant. That distinction becomes important again in the later stages of his career.
Sources for this section: [5]
Paris 2024: a fifth Games without a fifth medal
Irawan reached his fifth consecutive Olympics in Paris. In the men’s 61 kg event he lifted 135 kg in the snatch, leaving him second after that phase. He then missed all three clean and jerk attempts, so he had no combined total and no final placing or medal. Describing the result simply as “he did not medal” would hide the actual turning point of the competition.
The IWF reported that a knee injury had troubled his qualification period. That reporting supplies context, but it does not establish a definitive medical cause for any single missed lift. In December 2024 he returned to the world championships in Bahrain and completed a 292 kg total, his first completed international total in 15 months according to the federation.
Still competing in 2025 and 2026
At the 2025 World Championships in Førde, Norway, Irawan lifted 137 kg for bronze in the men’s 65 kg snatch. That was an individual-lift medal, not an overall world title: the official results book lists him seventh on the combined total. The result nevertheless showed that he remained competitive on a world stage at 36.
He competed again at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games in September 2026. The Asian Weightlifting Federation records him fourth in the men’s 65 kg contest, just outside the medal places. At 37 he was the oldest weightlifter in that event. His story therefore extends beyond Paris, while any future Olympic appearance remains an ambition rather than a result.
Quick answers
Frequently asked questions about Eko Yuli Irawan
- How many Olympic medals has Eko Yuli Irawan won?
- He won four medals at four consecutive Games: bronze at Beijing 2008 and London 2012, then silver at Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020, which was held in 2021.
- When did Eko Yuli Irawan become world champion?
- He won the men’s 61 kg world title in 2018 with a 317 kg total. That overall championship is distinct from medals awarded separately for a single lift.
- Did Eko Yuli Irawan win a medal at Paris 2024?
- No. He recorded a 135 kg snatch but failed all three clean-and-jerk attempts, leaving him without a combined total or an Olympic medal at those Games.
- What did Eko Yuli Irawan win at the 2025 World Championships?
- He took men’s 65 kg snatch bronze with 137 kg. His 163 kg clean and jerk produced a 300 kg total, listed seventh in the official combined standings, not an overall bronze.
Keep exploring
Lives connected to this story
- Hidilyn Diaz
A fellow Southeast Asian weightlifter whose Olympic gold offers a cross-country comparison.
- Susi Susanti
An Indonesian Olympic champion from the country’s historically dominant medal sport, badminton.
- Hoàng Anh Tuấn
Read about the Vietnamese silver medallist who shared Irawan’s Beijing 2008 weightlifting podium.
Sources and further reading
Explore the evidence
These references support the biography and offer further reading. Official records, first-person accounts and independent reporting provide different perspectives; image records document attribution and licensing.
- 1. Ministry of Youth and Sports of IndonesiaEko Yuli Irawan: family background and training journey
The ministry feature is used for childhood and family context; its later description mistakenly calls the 2008 and 2012 Olympic bronzes silvers, so medal counts here follow IWF records.
- 2. International Weightlifting FederationIrawan is ready for a fifth Olympic medal
- 3. International Weightlifting Federation2017 World Championships media guide: previous medallists
- 4. International Weightlifting FederationEko Yuli Irawan starts his Olympic harvest
This IWF retrospective contains obvious year typos for Rio and Tokyo; the four-medal sequence is cross-checked against its 2023 retrospective and competition records.
- 5. International Weightlifting FederationIrawan is world champion
- 6. International Weightlifting FederationParis 2024 men’s 61 kg final
- 7. International Weightlifting FederationBahrain 2024: Irawan completes a total again
- 8. International Weightlifting Federation2025 World Championships results book
The 2025 bronze was in the snatch only. The official total table lists him seventh on 300 kg (137 + 163), behind sixth-placed Ivan Dimov on the same total.
- 9. Asian Weightlifting FederationAichi-Nagoya 2026 weightlifting review
The report was published on 27 September 2026; Irawan’s fourth-place 65 kg contest took place on 24 September. This is a completed Asian Games result, not an Olympic qualification prediction.
- 10. Wikimedia CommonsEko Yuli Irawan 2016 — image and public-domain record
- 11. OlympediaBeijing 2008 men’s 56 kg results: Eko Irawan and Hoàng Anh Tuấn
