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For the second consecutive day, a nation had an Olympic first– and weightlifting played host to the historic moments. 

On Tuesday, Turkmenistan ended its Olympic medal drought, when GURYEVA Polina broke through, winning silver in the women’s 59kg bodyweight category — the first medal of any kind for the nation.

“I am really proud about this and I think the Turkmenistani people will be happy about this. I will continue my training and try to have more success,” GURYEVA said.

Turkmenistan first entered Olympic competition in 1996 at the Games in Atlanta. Its historic moment came one day after DIAZ Hidilyn, 4-time Olympian and 2016 Olympic silver medalist of the Philippines struck gold, the nation’s first gold medal since it entered Olympic competition in 1924. 

But it was TPE’s KUO Hsing-Chun who was crowned Olympic Champion in the women’s 59kg category Tuesday evening. She took home all three Olympic Records, a 103kg snatch, 133kg clean & jerk and 236kg total, besting GURYEVA by 19kg.

“I finally have my gold medal. All the pieces have come together now. I’m very happy,” KUO said. “Today I have this medal, and maybe I can have a bigger influence to encourage young people to participate in this sport.”

KUO attempted to break her world record in clean & jerk with a 141kg lift, but came up short.

“I aimed for the world record. I couldn’t achieve that today, which was a bit of a regret, but I did get the gold medal, so I’m happy,” KUO said.

KUO’s gold was TPE’s sixth gold medal in the Olympic Games. Five of TPE’s six Olympic gold medals have been won by women. She won bronze at the Olympic Games Rio de Janeiro 2016.

ANDOH Mikiko, of the host nation Japan, won bronze, improving from her 5th place finish at the Rio de Janeiro 2016 Games.

“I’m very happy that I got a bronze medal. This is something that I can show to people,” ANDOH said. “When I succeeded with 120kg it got me the medal. When I heard the buzzer I thought, ‘at last, I’ve got a medal’. I was filled with emotions.”

CAN’s Maude CHARRON struck gold in the 64kg bodyweight category, besting the competition in her first Olympic Games. 

“I thought about my grandmother,” CHARRON said about what she was thinking about while standing atop the podium. “Once she told me she’d like me to sing the Canadian anthem, so I sang it – but on the podium at the Olympics.”

BORDIGNON Giorgia claimed silver, posting a a 232kg total, and earning ITA’s second Weightlifting medal at these Tokyo Games.

“Things are changing, there’s a new generation, and now who’s winning are the people who are facing their fears, and they thoroughly deserve it,” BORDIGNON said.

CHEN Wen-Huei picked up TPE’s second weightlifting medal of the day, winning bronze with a 230kg total

“It’s amazing. Now we can show that in (our country) weightlifting is very valued, and we are really good at it,” CHEN said.

CHEN’s medal was TPE’s fifth Olympic medal in weightlifting.

Earlier in the day’s combined 59kg & 64kg B session, ELLIOTT Kiana Rose (AUS) set a new Oceania Continental Record in snatch with a 101kg lift, besting her 100kg record set at the Australian Open in February 2020. Her 209kg total placed her 11th overall.

The men return to the platform Wednesday with the 73kg bodyweight category. The B session begins at 13:50 followed by the A session at 19:50.