Unless they are present to weigh in it means North Korea - whose planned return after an absence of three and a half years was described as "a catastrophe for weightlifting" - will not be able to participate in enough events to qualify for Paris and will miss the Olympic Games for the second time in succession.

North Korea, which has won more Olympic medals in weightlifting than in any other sport, was alone in withdrawing from the delayed Tokyo 2020 Olympics because of COVID-19 fears and its National Olympic Committee was consequently banned until the end of 2022 by the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

North Korean weightlifters last competed internationally in December 2019, since when they have not been subject to the same anti-doping controls as the rest of the world - which led to the "catastrophe" claim by the Australian coach Paul Coffa and other strong comments from athletes, coaches and others.

Fourteen North Korean lifters, plus their team of coaches and support personnel, were due to arrive on Monday (June 5) in Havana, where the first one in action is due to be Pang Un Chol in the men’s 55kg tomorrow, the first day of action in this third Olympic qualifying event.

The North Korean Weightlifting Federation has not communicated with the Grand Prix Organising Committee or the IWF to say whether it has withdrawn, or to offer any explanation for its absence.

It has not been possible for anybody in the IWF event management team to contact North Korean weightlifting authorities or its National Olympic Committee.

Apparently the only channel of communication with the world’s most inaccessible country is through its embassy in Moscow, but attempts via that route have failed.

As the team confirmed its final entries last month and has not officially withdrawn, 14 North Koreans appear in the Grand Prix start book for sessions between tomorrow and next Wednesday (June 14).

If they do not arrive and do not withdraw officially, they will become ineligible for Paris one by one as the days go by, rather than en masse.

While North Korea has not shown up, 13 lifters with Belarus passports will compete as Individual Neutral Athletes after signing up to conditions imposed by the IWF.

Several other teams have withdrawn or downsized, some of them also without notifying the IWF or the Organising Committee here.

There were more than 700 preliminary entries three months ago and 400-plus at the final entry stage in early May, but only about 250 will lift here because so many have decided not to come for whatever reason - cost or length of flights, lack of state support, injuries or even a simple change of plans to focus on other qualifying events.

Entry fees are not paid in advance and under current rules there is no penalty for National Federations who fail to inform the IWF of their plans.

Because unannounced no-shows create organisational challenges - never before on the scale of this Grand Prix - the IWF Board will now discuss enforcing part payment in advance.

The qualifying picture for Paris 2024 will change over the next 11 days regardless of the absences.

Another significant change in the final entries is Rahmat Erwin from Indonesia, the clean and jerk world record holder at 73 kilograms, moving up to 81kg.

Erwin also went up to 81kg - but weighed only 76.6kg - to win gold at the Southeast Asian Games in Cambodia last month with a 359kg total.

His team-mate Rizki Junyansyah, who won gold at 73kg in Cambodia with 347kg, will take part in Havana.

Their 33-year-old team-mate Eko Yuli Irawan is entered at 67kg for only the second time in a career that began in May 2006. 

In the 17 years since then Irawan has won four Olympic medals, bronze in 2008 and 2012, and silver in 2016 and 2020, all at lighter weights.

The new-look Irawan, who dyed his hair blonde before winning Southeast Asian Games gold at 61kg last month - making a clean and jerk of 170kg on the way to a 303kg total - will be 35 when the lifting starts in Paris.

There are several interesting latecomers to Paris qualifying, from Colombia, the United States, Turkmenistan and elsewhere.

Polina Guryeva, Turkmenistan’s only Olympic medallist in any sport, stopped competing to have a child after taking silver in Tokyo and returns in the 81kg B Group.

There are five Olympic medallists and a world champion entered at 81kg, three of them in the B Group - Guryeva, 33-year-old Leidy Solis from Colombia, who won a silver at Beijing 2008, and Aremi Fuentes from Mexico.

Norway’s 87kg world champion Solfrid Koanda has the highest entry total in the A Group, where she is joined by two top Ecuadorians, the 76kg Olympic champion Neisi Dajomes and 87kg silver medallist Tamara Salazar.

Another Tokyo medallist starting out after a long lay-off is Luis Javier Mosquera from Colombia, whose wrist injury kept him out of the first two qualifiers.

After taking silver at 67kg in Tokyo he moves up to 73kg, where another Tokyo medallist Mirko Zanni from Italy is among his rivals. 

Colombia has a very strong team and will expect to win plenty of medals.

The United States has the largest team of 20, one more than Cuba which is hosting a global weightlifting competition for the first time in 50 years.

Among the Americans is CJ Cummings, who has not lifted internationally since Tokyo, where he finished ninth at 73kg. 

He is up in body weight by 20 per cent to lift at 89kg, which he has already done in national competitions.

Two other Olympic champions are entered in Havana, Maude Charron from Canada and Kuo Hsing-Chun from Chinese Taipei.

As in the earlier qualifying competitions, several athletes will weigh in for a "participation" without lifting because they are not at 100 per cent physically.

Lesman Paredes for Bahrain, Antonino Pizzolato from Italy, Boady Santavy from Canada, and Karem Ben Hnia and Ghofrane Belkhir from Tunisia are among those who may not lift.