Five Korean weightlifters travel to Paris

Five Korean weightlifters, one of them an amateur singer, are on their way to the Olympic Games in Paris, where the sport will be held from August 7 to 11.

Kim Su-hyeon and Park Hye-jeong will represent Korea in the women’s competition, while Bak Joo-hyo, Yu Dong-ju and Jang Yeon-hak will try to top the podium in the men’s competition.

Kim, who won two consecutive gold medals at the 2023 and 2024 Asian Weightlifting Championships – albeit in different weight classes – is travelling to Paris for her first Olympic Games.

Park will also be making her Olympics debut after already having a number of international honours under her belt. She won a gold medal in the women’s 87 kilograms category at the 2023 IWF Weightlifting World Championships and also took gold at the Hangzhou Asian Games and the 2024 Asian Championships.

The weight classes for women are 49 kilograms, 59 kilograms, 71 kilograms, 81 kilograms and +81 kilograms.

Bak will be heading to the Olympics for the first time, having excelled in both sport and singing. He won a silver medal in the men’s clean and jerk at the 2023 Asian Weightlifting Championships and won an episode of the national singing competition “I Can See Your Voice” that same year – raising questions about whether he will be singing serenades during his time in Paris.

Bak Joo-hyo trains at the national weightlifting team training ground at the Jincheon National Training Center in Jincheon, North Chungcheong, on June 26. (NEWS1)

After winning a silver medal in the men’s 102 kg class, Jang will compete in the Olympic Games for the first time at the 2023 World Championships in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Yu is the only member of the Korean weightlifting team to have competed in the Olympic Games: in Tokyo in 2021 and in Rio in 2016.

The weight classes for men are 61 kilograms, 73 kilograms, 89 kilograms, 102 kilograms and +102 kilograms.

Since the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal, there have been two types of weightlifting: the snatch and the clean and jerk.

During the snatch, the athlete must lift the barbell in one movement, which requires strength and speed.

The snatch and clean and jerk is a two-step exercise in which the athlete takes the barbell to the shoulders and then lifts it over the head.

All lifters must complete both exercises three times. Their best results from each event will count towards the final score.

If there is a tie in the total weight of the lifted athletes, the athlete with the lower body weight is declared the winner.

If the athletes have the same weight, the weightlifter wins with fewer attempts.

Weightlifters can use tape to prevent injuries and chalk to strengthen their grip.

If the athlete successfully lifts a certain weight, the participant can increase the weight on the next attempt to receive a higher score.

Korea has 16 medals in weightlifting, including three gold medals.

BY MARY YANG, KEVIN CHUNG ([email protected])