The Olympics Blog » Weight Lifting

Lu Yong: China’s Gold Medalist # 24

bill — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 22:11:00 +0000

Chinese athletes do rule weightlifting, no? They grabbed eight of the 11 gold medals awarded so far. Here’s China’s Lu Yong celebrating after winning gold medal number 24 for China. Lu tied with Andrei Rybakou of Belarus as both lifted 394 kilos but he was awarded the gold because he registered a lighter body weight during the weigh-in.

Armenia’s Tigran Varban Martirosyan won the bronze medal for this event (weightlifting, 85 kg category).

Photo credit: gettyimages via beijing2008

Weightlifter Cao Lei Wins Gold Number 23 for China

bill — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 10:53:00 +0000

China’s gold medal count remained stuck at 22 for much of Day 7 but this has now gone up to 23 following the victory of Cao Lei in women’s weightlifting (75 kg category). She bested Alla Vazhenina of Kazakhstan who got the silver and Russian Nadezda Evstyukhina who settled for the bronze.

For those of you interested in the China vs. US race for gold medals, it currently stands at: China (23 golds) vs. U.S. (14 golds).

Photo source: xinhua via beijing2008

Sa Jae-hyouk Crashes Chinese Party

bill — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 10:37:00 +0000

Here’s something I should have blogged about earlier but haven’t. Well, it’s better late than never. This dude, dear readers, is South Korean Sa Jae-hyouk who crashed China’s party in the weightlifting competitions when he won the gold medal in the 77 kilogram category. China’s Li Hongli and Armenia’s Gevorg Davtyan settled for the silver and bronze respectively.

Photo credit: gettyimages via beijing2008

Pak Hyon Suk Bags First Gold Medal for North Korea

bill — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 11:33:00 +0000

North Korean weightlifter Pak Hyon Suk proved to be the strongest in the women’s 63kg weightlifting competition and bagged the first gold medal for North Korea.

Photo credit: Paul Gilham via Beijing2008

Prapawadee Jaroenrattanatarakoon Bags Thailand’s First Gold Medal

bill — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 23:46:00 +0000

Here’s tip number one for those of you Olympic wannabes: if you want to win an Olympic gold medal, change your name to something like Supercalifragilistic Expialidocious. Will it work? The trick worked for Thai weightlifter Prapawadee Jaroenrattanatarakoon so it might work for you too.

Legend has it [actually it's a true story] that Prawadee, then named Chanpim Kantatian wasn’t sure whether she can make it to the Thai Olympic team so she consulted a fortune teller who advised her to change her name. So Chanpim Kantatian became Prapawadee Jaroenrattanatarakoon. And then she went on to win an Olympic gold medal, the first for Thailand in the Beijing Games. Congratulations to our Thai friends. Kaw sadeng kwam yin dee duay!!

Interesting side note: The Canadian Broadcasting Company is reporting that China could have won this event if “not for a rule that limits competitors to four women per country”. More here.

Edited to Add: Prapawadee will be US$314,000 richer based on Thailand’s incentive scheme for Olympic medalists. Want to know the financial incentives given by other countries? Here’s the link: How Much Money Do Olympians Make? Thailand is giving out the highest incentive so far followed by the Philippines’ US$220,000.

Photo source: xinhuanet

Olympic Medal Results: Long Qingquan Makes it Six Golds for China

bill — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 22:24:00 +0000

At 5’1″, weightlifter Long Qingquan may be short but he is, no doubt about it, very strong. I’m sure he is stronger than you. Can you lift 162 kilograms? Can you? Can you? Nah. Just as I thought.

It is also likely that this kid is younger than you; he’s only 17 years old, in case you are wondering. That means he can still improve not only in the weightlifting department but in the height department as well.

Long bagged China’s sixth gold medal in the Olympic Games beating our Olympian to Watch, Vietnam’s Hoang Anh Tuan who won the silver medal and Indonesia’s Eko Yuli Irawan who settled for the bronze. Looks like them Asians are doing a good job in weightlifting, no?

By the way, it’s still quiet on the western front. For those of you keeping score, it’s six gold medals for China and two gold medals for the United States.

Chen Xiexia Scores One Gold for China

bill — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 11:10:00 +0000

If Czech shooter Katerina Emmons gained the distinction as the first gold medalist in Beijing, weightlifter Chen Xiexia will be remembered as the first Chinese athlete to win a gold medal for the host country. Eat your heart out, United States, the Chinese have a gold medal now.

Photo credit: chinadaily.com

Coming Up: Halil Mutlu vs. The Chinese

bill — Mon, 19 May 2008 13:32:00 +0000

Turkish weightlifter Halil Mutlu is a three time Olympic gold medalist. He hopes to get another gold when he goes to Beijing in August. Who could stop him from getting his fourth gold medal? Chinese weightlifters who’ve been trying to out-lift him for years.

Here’s a quote from Halil Mutlu about his prospects in Beijing: “The Chinese have been trying to beat me for years without success. They will try to be successful this time. I need to be more careful not to let them do this.”

PHOTO SOURCE: mynet.com

Greek Weightlifting Team: Guilty Dopers or Innocent Victims?

bill — Sat, 03 May 2008 00:11:00 +0000

Argh. Drugs. Bad news for weightlifting and the Olympic movement in general. Bad news for the Greek Olympic team in particular.

A DPA Report: A second doping test on a group of 11 Greek weightlifters who initially tested positive for banned substances was also found to be positive, making the athletes unlikely competitors for the upcoming 2008 Beijing Olympics, reports said Friday.

The second test was conducted in a laboratory in Cologne, Germany and confirmed results first announced on April 4, which found almost the entire men’s and women’s national teams to have failed tests conducted by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).

Read the rest here. The sad thing about positive doping reports like this is that they no longer have shock value. Reports about use of banned drugs by athletes have become staple in the daily news so we, members of the public, shrug our shoulders and say, “Huh, what else is new?” Sad.

Dara Mama Club: Melanie Roach

bill — Fri, 02 May 2008 01:07:00 +0000

Let’s include Melanie Roach in our Dara Mama Club. But what’s the Dara Mama Club? Uhm, its a special category we are creating here at The Olympian Blog referring to moms who have qualified or are trying to qualify for the Beijing Olympics. We are naming the club after the first Olympic mom we blogged about, U.S. swimmer Dara Torres.

Above photo shows Melanie Roach with her son Drew who was diagnosed with autism. You can read Melanie’s very touching story and her upcoming attempt to qualify for the Olympics here. We hope she makes it to Beijing. Go Melanie! Go Dara Mamas!