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In the final weightlifting event, women's over 81kg, Chinese athlete Li Wenwen won the championship with a total score of 309kg. The Chinese sports delegation won 40 gold medals in the Paris Olympics, surpassing the 39 gold medals in the 2012 London Olympics, setting a record for the most gold medals won in overseas competitions.

Looking through the record list of women's weightlifting over 81kg, whether it is the world record or the Olympic record, all the best scores in snatch, clean and jerk, and total score were created by Li Wenwen. Her strength can be said to be "unique". Li Wenwen is determined to win this gold medal.

The snatch competition started first, and Li Wenwen was the last to appear. She signaled the audience to be quiet, and after closing her eyes and thinking for a few seconds, she successfully lifted the 130 kg barbell. After South Korea's Park Hye-jung lifted 131 kg, Li Wenwen asked for 136 kg in the second attempt, and also lifted it steadily. Leading the second place by 5 kg, Li Wenwen gave up the opportunity to do the snatch in the third attempt and concentrated on preparing for the clean and jerk competition.

Li Wenwen was the last to perform the clean and jerk. She lifted the weight of 167 kg successfully. Park Hye-jung then lifted 168 kg. Li Wenwen asked for 173 kg in the second attempt. She shouted the technical essentials of "stay close to the body, turn over to the right position, and push straight up" like before every attempt, and then concentrated on the action and lifted the barbell again. As Park Hye-jung and British player Campbell failed to lift, Li Wenwen had already secured the championship. She shed tears of excitement in the audience. Li Wenwen chose to give up the last lift. She went on stage to applaud, wave, and make a heart shape to the audience. Wenwen pulled her coach Wu Meijin onto the weightlifting platform to celebrate the victory together. Li Wenwen lifted Coach Wu up and completed the last "lift" of the Paris Olympics.

Li Wenwen became the champion of the Tokyo Olympics at the age of 21. At the beginning of the Paris Olympic cycle, people around her would tell her, "Wenwen will definitely be fine, and the gold medal in Paris will definitely be yours." It was precisely in such an atmosphere that Li Wenwen felt a little lost. At the Riyadh World Championships in September last year, she suddenly broke her right elbow when snatching 130 kilograms and regretfully withdrew from the competition. Li Wenwen was unable to participate in the subsequent Hangzhou Asian Games and Qatar Grand Prix.

"I had been doing so smoothly before, and I was very confused when problems arose. During this process, I reflected on my own problems. I had enough ability, but I didn't do the technical movements well." Looking back on her mental journey after the injury, Li Wenwen was very touched. "After resuming systematic training, I continued to hone my technical movements and completed some training that I didn't like to do before. Many times I forced myself to do it because I realized that the training items I didn't like were exactly what I lacked. In this process, I constantly challenged myself and looked for problems every day."

In the World Cup in April, Li Wenwen returned from injury. Her total score of 325 kg created her personal best performance in the Paris Olympic cycle. She has completely walked out of the shadow of injury and grown into a stronger self. "My elbow joints and upper limbs are stronger than before the injury. My team uniforms have always been specially made. When the new clothes were distributed before the game, I found that my back was a little tight after putting them on. It turned out that my back was stronger and stronger. So I knew that as long as I let go of the movements in the game, there would be no problem." Li Wenwen knew that as long as she was sent to Paris, the goal must be to raise the national flag and play the national anthem, and she completed the task successfully.

The weightlifting competition came to an end. The Chinese weightlifting team won 5 gold medals in the 6 events they participated in, accounting for half of all 10 levels of events. The Chinese sports delegation won 40 gold medals in the Paris Olympics, surpassing the 39 gold medals in the 2012 London Olympics, setting a record for the most gold medals in overseas competitions. The number of gold medals is second only to the 48 gold medals in the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Source: Beijing Sports

Reporter: Li Yuanfei, Chen Jiakun

Process Editor: U022