TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan's "Goddess of Weightlifting" Kuo Hsing-chun (郭婞淳) won a bronze medal Thursday (Aug. 8), making her the first Taiwanese athlete to medal at three consecutive Olympics.
Kuo went into the women's 59kg weightlifting competition in Paris on Thursday afternoon (July 27) still recovering from minor injuries. At age 30, she faced a younger and more competitive field than in years past.
In the first category, the snatch, Kuo lifted 105 kg, putting her in fourth place overall. In the clean and jerk event that followed, she opened with 130 kg, which she appeared to have lifted successfully, but judges determined that she had committed an error and the lift was scratched.
On her second try, Kuo successfully lifted 130 kg. Before her third attempt, she was in third place, behind China's Luo Shifang (羅詩芳) and Canada's Maude Charron.
In an attempt to take the gold, Kuo opted for 137 kg. She lifted the bar to her shoulders but could not raise the bar over her head.
Kuo's combined lift was 235 kg, which earned her the bronze behind Charron who took silver with a combined lift of 236 kg, and Luo who had a combined lift of 241 kg.
Having won a bronze medal at Rio 2016, and a gold at Tokyo 2020, her bronze at Paris 2024 made her the first Taiwanese athlete to win medals at three consecutive Olympics.
