Competitors for 1978 World Weightlifting Championships
| Athlete | Country | Sports | Date of birth |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gunter Ambraß |  GDR |
WLT | 16 September 1955 |
| Kenkichi Ando |  JPN |
WLT | 3 May 1950 |
| Ferenc Antalovics |  HUN |
WLT | 9 July 1953 |
| Sergey Arakelov |  URS |
WLT | 18 July 1957 |
| Péter Baczakó | HUN |
WLT | 27 September 1951 |
| Anton Baraniak |  TCH |
WLT | 20 June 1951 |
| Gennady Bessonov | URS |
WLT | 28 April 1954 |
| Gerd Bonk | GDR |
WLT | 26 August 1951 |
| Francisco Casamayor |  CUB |
WLT | 29 January 1949 |
| Jürgen Ciezki | GDR |
WLT | 27 May 1952 |
| Tadeusz Dembończyk |  POL |
WLT | 23 December 1955 |
| Stefan Dimitrov |  BUL |
WLT | 9 December 1957 |
| Virgil Dociu |  ROU |
WLT | 3 December 1953 |
| Julio Echenique | CUB |
WLT | 27 May 1959 |
| Manfred Funke | GDR |
WLT | 22 August 1955 |
| Tadeusz Golik | POL |
WLT | 31 August 1952 |
| Jürgen Heuser | GDR |
WLT | 13 March 1953 |
| Zbigniew Kaczmarek | POL |
WLT | 31 July 1946 |
| Nikolay Kolesnikov | URS |
WLT | 15 February 1952 |
| István Lénárt | HUN |
WLT | 14 February 1959 |
| Vardan Militosyan | URS |
WLT | 8 July 1950 |
| Rolf Milser |  GER |
WLT | 28 June 1951 |
| Andon Nikolov | BUL |
WLT | 15 June 1951 |
| Leif Nilsson |  SWE |
WLT | 16 November 1952 |
| Daniel Núñez | CUB |
WLT | 12 September 1958 |
| Kanybek Osmonaliyev | URS |
WLT | 19 November 1953 |
| Hristo Plachkov | BUL |
WLT | 9 August 1953 |
| Paweł Rabczewski | POL |
WLT | 20 November 1949 |
| Sultanbay Rakhmanov | URS |
WLT | 6 July 1950 |
| György Rehus-Uzor | HUN |
WLT | 10 July 1946 |
| David Rigert | URS |
WLT | 12 March 1947 |
| Yanko Rusev | BUL |
WLT | 1 December 1958 |
| Marek Sachmaciński | POL |
WLT | 19 October 1953 |
| Takashi Saito | JPN |
WLT | 28 January 1953 |
| Marek Seweryn | POL |
WLT | 17 October 1957 |
| György Szalai | HUN |
WLT | 14 February 1951 |
| László Száraz | HUN |
WLT | 26 February 1954 |
| Masatomo Takeuchi | JPN |
WLT | 29 September 1952 |
| Tan Hanyong |  CHN |
WLT | 1958 |
| Valentin Todorov | BUL |
WLT | 1957 |
| Tony Urrutia | CUB USA |
WLT | 7 December 1957 |
| Yuri Vardanyan | URS |
WLT | 13 June 1956 |
| Mario Villalobos | CUB |
WLT | 1956 |
| Peter Wenzel | GDR |
WLT | 15 April 1952 |
| Daniel Zayas | CUB |
WLT | 21 July 1957 |
| Yury Zaytsev | URS |
WLT | 17 January 1951 |