The women's 48 kilograms weightlifting event is the lightest women's event at the weightlifting competition, limiting competitors to a maximum of 48 kilograms of body mass.

The competition took place on August 9 at 10:00 and was the first Weightlifting event to conclude.

It was the second set of medals to be awarded at the Games, a few moments after the women's 10m Air Rifle.

Each lifter performed in both the snatch and clean and jerk lifts, with the final score being the sum of the lifter's best result in each.

Chen Xiexia and Sibel Özkan initially won the gold and the silver medals, but in 2016 their results were annulled due to a doping violation from a reanalysis of samples from 2008.