KB News Desk
Most athletes good enough to compete in an Olympic Games dream of winning a gold medal. Saying, “I want to win a silver medal!” doesn’t quite have the same ring to it as declaring, “My goal is to win a gold medal and nothing less!”
Korean weightlifter Park Hye-jeong is no different. She would love nothing more than an Olympic gold.
But the 21-year-old is also realistic. She believes she will have to wait another four years for her first real crack at the biggest Olympic prize. That’s because the world record holder and reigning Olympic champion in the women’s +87-kilogram division, Li Wenwen of China, still looms large with this year’s Olympics in Paris just a couple of weeks away.
It’s not that Park isn’t worthy of a gold medal in Paris. Park is the 2023 world champion and the reigning Asian Games gold medalist in the women’s +87 kilograms. But both titles came with Li sidelined.
At the 2023 International Weightlifting Federation World Championships, held in Riyadh in September, Li withdrew with an elbow injury following two botched snatch attempts at 130kg. That injury forced Li to miss the Asian Games later that same month in Hangzhou, China, and Park cruised to her first gold medal.
When healthy, however, Li is as singularly dominant in her weight division as anyone. She owns world records in each of the snatch (148kg), the clean and jerk (187kg) and the total weight (335kg). She is often the only one to surpass 300kg in the total weight.
Park is widely considered the second best in the world behind Li, but her personal best in the snatch is only 130kg. She holds the Korean national records in the clean and jerk at 170kg and in the total weight at 296kg, both well behind Li’s marks.
As long as Li avoids an untimely injury, the gold in Paris will be hers to lose. Everyone else will be fighting for second place, with Park being the strongest contender for silver.
And Park doesn’t see any shame in being the second best in her division.
“I don’t take any offense when people say I am not going to win gold in Paris. Honestly, Li Wenwen is so good, and I fully expect not to have a chance to win the gold medal this time,” Park told Yonhap News Agency on Tuesday, after attending the Olympic delegation launch ceremony in Seoul. “Right now, I will focus on my own performance. I think I will have a shot at winning the gold at the Los Angeles Olympics (in 2028).”
It’s not outside the realm of possibility that things can play out that way. For LA 2028, Park will be 25, in the thick of her prime years. Li will be 28 — not old by any stretch of imagination, but there will be plenty of mileage on her body by then. It will be difficult even for a world-class athlete like Li to sustain this level of dominance for that long.
Park said she will be taking baby steps toward her ultimate goal.
“My best records are 130kg and 170kg (in the snatch and in the clean and jerk, respectively), and I want to add just 1kg to each in Paris,” she said. “Then I will have the national records in all three categories. And I’ve heard those marks will basically guarantee the silver medal for me. So that’s my goal.”
