Weightlifting career

Zhan Xugang was recruited for the Kaihua County Sports School weightlifting program at ten years of age. Due to his progress Zhan was selected for the Zhejiang provincial team in 1987, the same year he broke a national junior record. In 1993 while on the national junior team he was named "an outstanding Asian Junior weightlifter" and was selected to the senior team in January 1994. In 1996, at the Atlanta Olympic Games, Zhan Xugang won the gold medal and broke 3 World Records. In 1998, the International Weightlifting Federation implemented new weightlifting levels. Zhan Xugang entered the 77 kg class. Zhan was challenged as the levels of his competitors rose. At the Sydney Olympic Games in 2000, Zhan snatched 160 kg and ranked fourth in the competition. Despite the adverse circumstance, he was able to clean and jerk 207.5 kg, a personal record. This allowed him to total 367.5 kg and win gold. At the 2004 Games he missed all three snatch attempts in the men's 77 kg division and did not finish the competition.^[1] Afterwards he announced his retirement.

Political career

Going forward Zhan Xugang mainly engaged in sports management in Zhejiang Province as the deputy commander in charge of weightlifting, judo and taekwondo. In 2005 he became director of the sports department of the Career Technical College.

In 2008, Zhan was one of the torch bearers for the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics.

In the beginning of 2012, Zhan was promoted to vice president of Zhejiang sports of the Career Technical College and became the director of seven departments. In July 2015, he served as committee member for his home and was proposed to be the deputy governor of three counties.^[2]