"If you go to Tokyo, you must take it!" This is the vow made by Li Wenwen before going to the Olympic Games.
Although she is only a "post-00s" who has only emerged in 2019, and although she has to face the impact of transgender athletes in the competition, in the Tokyo Olympic Games weightlifting women's 87 kg or more competition on August 2, China's Li Wenwen won the championship with a total score of 320 kg, 37 kg ahead of the second place! This is the 29th gold medal won by the Chinese delegation at the Olympic Games.
At the Tokyo Olympics, Li Wenwen won the women's 87 kg and above competition. Image according to IC photo
Reason for exposure to weightlifting: Gambling with my father
Born in 2000, Li Wenwen is currently the youngest member of the Chinese women's weightlifting team, and the reason why she first came into contact with weightlifting was to gamble with her father.
In 2012, Li Wenwen, who was only 12 years old at the time, was about 1 meter 7 tall and weighed as much as 88 kilograms. According to her recollection, at that time, the coach of Anshan Sports School did not look at herself when she came to the school to select materials, "(The coach) said that I was too fat! And the father even said to Li Wenwen, "You can't see what you do, even the sports school doesn't want you." This inspired Li Wenwen's determination.
Later, Li Wenwen found a sports school coach and obtained the qualification of "audit". Because the Anshan Sports School lacked big-level weightlifters at that time, Li Wenwen was left in the team. It was this "gamble" with his father that created the youngest Olympic champion of the Chinese weightlifting team.
Debut on the international stage: Beat the world record holder
In February 2019, fuzhou weightlifting world cup. This is Li Wenwen's first time on the stage of an international competition, and the Chinese team has sent a combination of Meng Suping and Li Wenwen in the 87 kg class. Although only 6 players competed for this level, the participation of the world record holder at the time, Russia's Kashlina, made the Chinese team hope to thwart the opponent's vigor at home.
The second snatch, Li Wenwen, lifted a weight of 142 kilograms, successfully breaking the world youth snatch record of this level; the third of the snatch, Li Wenwen broke the world youth deadlift record and the world youth overall performance record of this class with a weight of 182 kilograms, and the total result beat Kashlina 1 kilogram! Defeating the world record holder on her debut in the world arena gave Li Wenwen great confidence.
On December 12, 2019, Tianjin, Li Wenwen won the 2019 Weightlifting World Cup Women's 87 kg and above duel. Image according to Visual China
Also in 2019, after gaining great confidence at the beginning of the year, Li Wenwen defeated Kashlina and teammate Meng Suping at the World Championships in Pattaya in September, while changing the holder of these two world records to her name with a deadlift of 186 kg and a total of 332 kg. Coupled with the 147 kg snatch record previously created in the Ningbo Asian Championships, Li Wenwen won all 3 world records in this level, truly achieving "World War I sealing the gods"!
Fulfill the promise before the expedition: "When you go to Tokyo, you must win"
Before the Tokyo Olympics, at the Asian Championships in Tashkent and the Tokyo Olympic Qualification Tournament in April this year, Li Wenwen rewrote all the world records for snatch, deadlift and total results, and the results of 148 kg, 187 kg and 335 kg further established Li Wenwen's status!
In June, the New Zealand Olympic Committee officially announced that weightlifter Laurel Hubbard will compete in the women's 87 kg or more category at the Tokyo Olympics, which attracted a lot of attention. Born in 1978, Laurel Hubbard, formerly known as Gavin Hubbard, was a male athlete who set New Zealand's national youth record in 1998.
However, Hubbard was "transgender" in 2013, and she won the silver medal in the women's 90 kg or more category at the World Championships in 2017. At the Olympics, Hubbard's participation made her the first athlete in Olympic history to compete openly as a transgender athlete, and the 43-year-old is also the oldest athlete in the weightlifting competition.
Infographic: New Zealand weightlifter Hubbard. Image according to IC photo
Despite facing the strong impact of such an opponent, Li Wenwen still dominated me and showed absolute strength in the game. By the time Li Wenwen started with 130 kilograms, the other runners had all finished the race, with the best performer lifting 128 kilograms, and after she lifted 140 kilograms in her third to break the Olympic record, she had already established a 12-kilogram advantage. The deadlift competition was the same, Li Wenwen lifted 162 kilograms in the first place, and the other athletes had all stopped before the weight of 161 kilograms; the third lifted her 180 kilograms, breaking the Olympic record for the event and the overall result! Hubbard failed all three tackle attempts and withdrew early from medal fighting.
"If you go to Tokyo, you must take it!" Li Wenwen fulfilled her promise before the expedition. I come, I lift, I conquer! Li Wenwen continues to help Chinese women's senior athletes write a new legend in the history of weightlifting.
Red Star News reporter Li Bo Pei Han
Edit Bao Chengli
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