BEIJING, Aug. 11 (Xinhua)—Chinese weightlifter Chen Yanqing retained her women’s 58kg Olympic title in Beijing on Monday with a total result of 244kg.
Chen, 29, has become the first strongwoman in the world to successfully defend her Olympic title since the women’s weightlifting entered summer Olympics in Sydney eight years ago.
"The Athens gold belongs to me, but this one belongs to all the people supporting me," she said.
Chen made her fame in 1997 by claiming the jerk (挺举) and total golds in the world championships and ruled the class by keeping breaking the world records.
Chen did not try to break the world record during her competition and she has an explanation.
"The world record in the snatch (抓举) and the total belong to me, so to win the gold was more important," the veteran said.
It is the third gold for the Chinese weightlifting team, after Chen Xiexia won the women’s 48kg class on Saturday and Long Qingquan claimed the title in the men’s 56kg class Sunday, and the eighth gold for the Chinese delegation at the s.
Chen retired three times from the national team in 2000, 2005 and late 2006 but returned not long after each retirement and claimed the national and Asian titles. She qualified for the Olympics after claiming again the national champion in her third comeback last April.
"I want to thank my coach Xinmin for accompanying me for 18 years," she told the press conference after Sunday’s .
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