When walking into a gym or scanning the range of weightlifting equipment available, there are few items that catch the eye quicker than a set of Olympic bumper plates. 

Whether set up on a barbell, secured onto a rack or on television as part of the highest ranks of competition, bumper plates are a major part of many weightlifting and powerlifting routines, even if most gyms and homeowners frown upon slamming or dropping the weights following a routine.

However, one question that often emerges is why competition plates are brightly coloured, and what do these colours even represent?

What Are The Official Bumper Plate Colours?

If you are buying a set of weight plates along with a barbell, there are a lot of options available when it comes to size, thickness, style, shape and colour. However, if you want plates that conform to Olympic standards or come close to this, there are stricter rules on all of these characteristics.

The rules, as defined by the International Weightlifting Federation, require both competition and change plates to be coated in coloured rubber in the following colours:

• White - 5kg and 0.5kg

• Green - 10kg and 1kg

• Yellow - 15kg and 1.5kg

• Blue -  20kg and 2kg

• Red - 25kg and 2.5kg

The weights used for competition must be manufactured to within a tolerance of 10g, as any variation more than that can be the difference between success and failure at the highest possible level of competition.

Part of the reason for the distinctive colours is that all competition weightlifting plates must be the same diameter and thickness, which could otherwise make heavier weights harder to identify.

Why Are Weights Wrapped In Coloured Rubber?

Olympic weights consist of a steel core wrapped in a thick layer of coloured rubber.

The use of rubber is to protect the competition floor when weights are dropped and slammed, as is sometimes necessary due to lift attempts often bring athletes to the brink of their physical capabilities.

The rubber causes the barbell and all of the weights fitted to it to bounce, which distributes the force of the impact in a way that reduces damage to equipment.

It also helps in identification, particularly for televised competitions; it can be easy to tell at a glance which weights have been added to a barbell. It also ensures the weight is safely balanced and secured and improves the spectacle of competition for onlookers.

Why Were These Specific Colours Chosen?

Four of the five colours that cover competition weight plates are four of the five Olympic Rings, with the white plate representing the background used in a lot of Olympic iconography.

The colours were not always set up this way; at one point the 10kg plate was wrapped in black rubber whilst there was also a larger 50kg plate that was wrapped in green.

This would represent all of the colours of the Olympic Rings, but the green 50kg weight was used for just four years in official competition, only appearing at the 1976 Olympics in Montreal, Canada before being dropped. As 5kg weights are seldom used at the Olympic level, only four of the five Olympic rings are represented.

The Lost Olympic Weight

The 50kg weight was one of the rarest and most unusual weight plates on the market, as they proved to be unpopular with many weightlifters.

Exactly why this was the case is subject to some debate; one concern was that the density of the 50kg weight would add a level of intolerable strain to the wrists of lifters, something that was not helped by the inconsistencies surrounding the whip of weightlifting barbells at the time.

The effects of weight density on performance are sometimes underestimated, and not enough of the largest weights were used to make a weight twice as heavy as the current highest a necessity.

The plates themselves were nearly as heavy as some of the people loading them, they were expensive due to having to conform to the same size as every other weight plate currently available and ultimately proved to be unpopular.

By the late 1980s, the 10kg weights were coated in green rather than black rubber, to avoid potential confusion with non-competition plates that are often finished in hammertone for aesthetic and corrosion-fighting purposes.

Finally, by the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona, the established standard for the colours, sizes and shapes of competition plates was set, and ever since then, manufacturers have strove to create plates that allow athletes to perform at their very best.