2024 Olympic Games, Day 2 Recap – Women’s 59 kg: Absolute Dominance of Luo Shifang With 3 New Olympic Records

The Paris stage has already seen the very first performances in the Men’s 61 kg and Women’s 49 kg categories. Day 2 is going to be even more captivating as another two weight divisions are on the schedule today. Emotional victories in today’s Women’s category were accompanied by epic lifts, in which athletes were pushing their limits to chase their dreams.

Women’s 59-kg division brought us a worthy show from twelve weightlifters who were ready for the battle for Olympic spots and experienced whopping and unmatched emotions during their performances on the Paris lifting stage.

Keep watching the next female fight where every rival is ready to blow up this session day and win such a desirable Olympic medal. Here we go!

Read the full review about each day of the IWF Weightlifting World Championship 2024 prepared by our media team. Don’t miss the opportunity to stay updated and follow this great event in the weightlifting world with us from the very beginning till the end!

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Athletes’ presentation

Let’s cheer twelve passionate weightlifters who qualified for the Olympics this time. The following athletes deserve our attention as they made unbelievable efforts to secure their spots for Paris and fight for Top places. Let’s introduce three big names in this weight category who already showed their excellent mastery in weightlifting at the previous competitions:

LUO Shifang from China is the current World Champion, who won a gold medal at the Worlds in 2023 and Asian Championships in Jinju. She’s also a silver medalist at the 2022 Asian Games. At the 2024 World Cup, she set a total world record of 248 kg. She’s a first-time Olympian and it doesn’t bother to be one of the best Chinese female weightlifters and first in the 59-kg division.

Kuo Hsing-Chun, a highly-awarded Taiwanese weightlifter, an Olympic gold medalist in Tokyo, five-time World champion, two-time Universiade champion, Asian Games champion, and five-time Asian champion.

A three-time European Champion and this year’s World silver medalist from Ukraine – Kamila Konotop. She made her Olympic debut in Tokyo 2020, becoming fifth in the 55-kg weight class. Due to her three gold medals in the 55-kg category at the 2021 European Championships, Konotop became the first female Ukrainian weightlifter to win gold at the event.

Maude Charron from Canada came in weightlifting from cross-training. She is a two-time gold winner at the Commonwealth Games and Pan Ams in the 64-kg division. She also won the gold medal in the 64-kg division at the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics.

This nail-biter battle for the gold was pretty fierce nobody expected, but the contenders managed to amaze the audience with great performance and impressive weights on the bars.

Snatch

The performance in the Snatch exercise started from 92 kg. To say short, all lifters were highly determined and ready for the tough battle.

So, here are the names of weightlifters who managed to get to the Top 6:

4: Kuo Hsing-Chun (TPE) – 105 kg
5: Kamila Konotop (UKR) – 104 kg
6: Venegas Valera A. (VEN) – 102 kg

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Top 3 leaders’ results

Now let’s analyze the Top 3 lifters’ performance:

• 1: Luo Shifang (CHN) – 107 kg
• 2: Charron Maude (CAN) – 106 kg
• 3: Alvarez Yenny (COL) – 105 kg

Yenny Alvarez from Columbia ended this session by lifting 101 kg on the first lift, the second – 103 kg, which resulted in a good lift, and the last of 105 kg brought the green light. Today she improved the Pan American record she set at the 2022 Pan Ams.

The second place went to Charron Maude from Canada. She made the first attempt at 101 kg successfully. Then she made 104 kg on the second try again with success, and finished with a 106 kg attempt.

The first place went to Luo Shifang from China who snatched 101 kg at the first attempt, 105 kg at the second, and resulted with 107 kg shattering a new Olympic record.

Snatch results:

Summarizing the Snatch session, we can admit that weightlifters were motivated and dedicated to show their best form. So, we witnessed minimum red lights on the scoreboard this time, just five athletes had two unsuccessful attempts, while the rest showed 3/3 successful lifts.

Luo Shifang proved her strength with an outstanding lift of 107 kg, beating the previous record of 103 kg. So, she managed to set a new Olympic record in this round.

Despite the Ukrainian weightlifter Kamila Konotop who ranked just fifth, she was first who set a new Olympic record with the first lift of 104 kg. However, she stopped at that weight due to hip injury, bombing out at her second and third attempts.

Clean & Jerk

The contest in the Clean & Jerk movement started with a weight of 110 kg. This incredible session brought us the following Top-6 list:

4: Lawal Rafiatu F. (NGR) – 130 kg
5: Ando Elreen Ann (PHI) – 130 kg
6: Venegas Valera A. (VEN) – 128 kg

Top 3 leaders’ results

Let’s describe the performance of the Top 3 lifters:

• 1: Luo Shifang (CHN) – 134 kg
• 2: Charron Maude (CAN) – 130 kg
• 3: Kuo Hsing-Chun (TPE) – 130 kg

Kuo Hsing-Chun from Taipei secured third place attempting to lift 130 kg on the first attempt but failed it. Then she lifted the same 130 kg successfully. The final attempt with a 7 kg jump that was 137 kg she got red lights.

The silver medalist in this battle became Canadian Maude Charron. Today she started her performance with 126 kg, then 130 kg she lifted with success, and finalized with an attempt of 132 kg which she didn’t lift.

Luo Shifang became a gold winner in the 59-kg weight division. She started from an incredible 129 kg, then lifted 5 kilos more on the second try that is 134 kg. On her 3-rd attempt she went on the platform and just saluted all the arena, saying thanks for support. In the C&J, the Chinese powerhouse set her second Olympic record.

Clean & Jerk results:

This competition was also tense and full of emotional moments. The 59-kg session gathered the strongest female lifters of Asia, Europe and American continents.

The session’s stars became Chinese Lou Shifang who succeeded to set a new Olympic record in Clean & Jerk. Four athletes finished with the same weight of 130 kg.

Unfortunately, a Colombian weightlifter Yenny Alvarez completely bombed out of the competition failing to lift twice 130 kg and 132 kg at the last attempt. 

Compared to the Snatch round, here we had more unsuccessful attempts because of the growing pressure as the Olympic medals are at stake.

Total results

• 🥇Luo Shifang (CHN) – 241 kg
• 🥈Maude Charron (CAN) – 236 kg
• 🥉Kuo Hsing-Chun (TPE) – 235 kg
• 4 Venegas Valera A. (VEN) – 230 kg
• 5 Lawal Rafiatu F. (NGR) – 230 kg
• 6 Ando Elreen Ann (PHI) – 230 kg

The gold medalist in the category was Luo Shifang who did 241 kg overall, which became a new Olympic record.

The silver medalist was Maude Charron from Canada who finished with 236 kg, falling behind the winner by 5 kilos.

Kuo Hsing-Chun from Taipei took bronze thanks to her total of 235 kg.

Final thoughts

Today’s performance in the 59-kg division proved once again that the Chinese lifting school and discipline are effective at the maximum. The second day of the Olympic Games and each weightlifter both in Men’s and Women’s categories ups the podium and brings another medal to China.

We witnessed the Women’s 59 kg category’s triumphs, sweat, and taste of the win. The expected leaders occupied their places respectively. However, for some contenders  it was challenging to cope with pressure and show better results this time. 

Keep watching our reels and full videos of the latest performances in the Paris podium. Get unique insights into each competition day, detailed recaps of each weight category, and attention-worthy interviews with famous lifters.

Stay strong and remember – warm body cold mind!