Weightlifting at the Pacific Games has been contested since 1966 when it was included as one of twelve sports at the Second South Pacific Games held in Nouméa, New Caledonia. A weightlifting competition for women was introduced in 1995 for the games in Papeete.
Weightlifting has also been included in many of the Pacific Mini Games, starting with the third edition held at Nuku'alofa, in Tonga, in 1989. It was at this Mini Games that the number of medals events in each weight division was increased from one (for the overall total) to three (by awarding extra medals for the snatch and clean and jerk). This rule change was then adopted for the main Pacific Games from 1991 onwards.
The weight classes contested at each Pacific Games for weightlifting are listed in the table below. The nationality of the gold medal winner for the combined total in each class is indicated by a flag icon and three letter country code, where this information is known; otherwise an (X) is used. Moving the cursor onto a country code with a dotted underline will reveal the name of the gold medal winner. A dash (–) indicates a weight division that was not contested.
| Games | Host city < | -- | Country | --> | Weight class | Medal events | Refs | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| valign=bottom style="width:3.4em; border-bottom:0px; color:#444;" | Fly | valign=bottom style="width:3.4em; border-bottom:0px; color:#444;" | Bantam | valign=bottom style="width:3.4em; border-bottom:0px; color:#444;" | Feather | valign=bottom style="width:3.4em; border-bottom:0px; color:#444;" | Light | valign=bottom style="width:3.4em; border-bottom:0px; color:#444;" | Middle | valign=bottom style="width:3.4em; border-bottom:0px; color:#444;" | Light Heavy | valign=bottom style="width:3.4em; border-bottom:0px; color:#444;" | Middle Heavy | valign=bottom style="width:3.4em; border-bottom:0px; color:#444;" | First Heavy | valign=bottom style="width:3.4em; border-bottom:0px; color:#444;" | Heavy | valign=bottom style="width:3.4em; border-bottom:0px; color:#444;" | Super Heavy |
| I | 1963 < | ----> | Suva < | -- | --> | Not contested in 1963 | | ||||||||||||
| - | 56 kg | 60 kg | 67.5 kg | 75 kg | 82.5 kg | 90 kg | - | 90 kg+ | - | ||||||||||
| II | 1966 < | ----> | Nouméa < | -- | --> | - | - | - | 7 | ||||||||||
| 52 kg | 56 kg | 60 kg | 67.5 kg | 75 kg | 82.5 kg | 90 kg | - | 110 kg | 110 kg+ | ||||||||||
| III | 1969 < | ----> | Port Moresby < | -- | --> | - | 9 | [1] | |||||||||||
| IV | 1971 < | ----> | Papeete < | -- |  | ||||||||||||||