North Korean weightlifter Ri Song Gum won her country’s first gold medal at the Asian Games on Wednesday, setting three world records in the women’s 49-kilogram category in Nagoya and shedding tears of joy.
The 140-centimeter (4-foot-7-inch) tall weightlifter became one of only four athletes to win three Asian Games gold medals in weightlifting.
The 28-year-old Ri became emotional as North Korea’s national anthem played during the medal ceremony.
India’s Mirabai Chanu won the silver medal, while Indonesia’s Diana Tri Wijayana took bronze.
Ri’s outstanding performance received loud cheers at the Nagoya Trade and Industry Center hall. The atmosphere became even more energetic as a large number of North Korean fans in Japan waved flags and supported her.
The two-time reigning world champion added the gold medal to her previous Asian Games titles, which she won in Jakarta in 2018 in the 48-kilogram category and in Hangzhou in 2023 in the 49-kilogram category.
Ri lifted 94 kilograms in the opening snatch event, beating the previous world record of 93 kilograms by 1 kilogram.
She then broke the clean and jerk world record of 115 kilograms twice, first lifting 116 kilograms and then 121 kilograms. Her combined total of 215 kilograms also broke the previous world record by 7 kilograms.
“The reason I got this gold is for the feelings of my home country, the people had huge expectations for me,” Ri told reporters.
“I wanted to lift my country up on these two small shoulders.”
Starting Aug. 1, the International Weightlifting Federation introduced new weight classes ahead of the next Olympics and reset the world records.
Under the new system, an athlete who lifts more than the newly established world standard is recognized as setting a new world record.
Chanu on podium at last
Ri Song Gum has never competed at the Olympics. North Korea did not take part in the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 because of COVID-19, and the country failed to qualify in weightlifting for the 2024 Paris Olympics.
The 49kg weight class will not be included at the next Olympics in Los Angeles, where the weightlifting competition has been reduced to six men’s and six women’s divisions.
However, when Ri was asked whether she would consider moving up to 53kg, the lowest women’s weight class in which she could compete for Olympic gold, she replied, “Yes.”
India’s Mirabai Chanu, who won silver at the Tokyo Olympics, finally claimed an Asian Games medal on her third attempt.
Chanu lifted a total of 198kg, including 87kg in the snatch and 111kg in the clean and jerk. Indonesia’s Diana Tri Wijayana won bronze with a total of 191kg, lifting 88kg in the snatch and 103kg in the clean and jerk.
The 2017 world champion Chanu, now a veteran, is enjoying one of the strongest years of her career.
The 32-year-old won gold at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow in July. She said earning a place on the Asian Games podium for the first time had fulfilled “a dream.”
“I feel very good, very happy,” Chanu told AFP. “This is my dream to win an Asian Games medal.
“I had the belief in me that I would be able to win. There were expectations, people who believed in me — my coaches, my support staff and I made sure to win a medal for my country.”
With her victory, Ri became only the fourth weightlifter, and the first woman, to win three Asian Games gold medals.
She joined Iran’s Mohammad Nassiri, who won three golds from 1966 to 1974; South Korea’s Kim Tae-hyun, who won three from 1990 to 1998; and Iran’s Behdad Salimi, who won three from 2010 to 2018.
No weightlifter has ever won four Asian Games gold medals.
