Recently, the Chinese national weightlifting team announced the list of participants in the Tokyo Olympic Games, the women's team, Rio Olympic champion Deng Wei was unable to participate due to injury, and the Chinese team sent Hou Zhihui (49kg class), Liao Qiuyun (55kg class), Wang Zhouyu (87kg class), Li Wenwen (+87kg class) to compete, and strive to win the gold medal.
These four athletes are all participating in the Olympic Games for the first time, but in fact, Hou Zhihui was close to the Olympic gold medal five years ago, and the person has arrived in Brazil, but did not participate in the competition, which caused great controversy at the time.
Before the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, the Olympic list reported by the Chinese women's weightlifting team was Deng Wei, Xiang Yanmei, Li Yajun and Hou Zhihui.
Hou Zhihui, then 19, had arrived with the team at the Chinese delegation's training camp in São Paulo. The Rio Olympics opened on August 5, but on August 1, the Chinese team temporarily decided to change the women's 48 kg class to the women's 75 kg or more category, and the athletes were also changed from Hou Zhihui to Meng Suping, who flew from Home to Brazil.
At that time, Chen Yingbiao, deputy director of the Wrestling Center of the State General Administration of Sport, responded to Hou Zhihui's failure, mainly because her recovery from injuries was not very satisfactory, and the replacement was completely for the purpose of protecting athletes, "Let Hou Zhihui participate with injuries, we can't do it."
Hou Zhihui said that after learning the news of the replacement from the coach, she cried for a whole noon and felt that the goal was gone in an instant; but she then said that she still longed for the Tokyo Olympics.
According to the schedule, if not replaced, Hou Zhihui is likely to win the first gold medal of the Chinese delegation at the Rio Olympics. In the end, Meng Suping won the gold medal in the women's 75 kg or more category as desired.
Meng Suping
After five years and the postponement of the Olympic Games, Hou Zhihui finally got the opportunity to participate in the Olympic Games again. At the Asian Championships in April this year, Hou Zhihui won the overall result with 213 kg and set a new world record for the snatch and overall result. I believe that in Tokyo, she will not leave any regrets and look forward to her realization of the gold medal dream!