Super-Heavyweight (>75 kilograms), Women

Under normal circumstances, Russia’s Tatyana Kashirina would have been the clear favorite for the women’s super-heavyweight gold medal at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio. She was a four-time World (2010, 2013-2015) and six-time European (2009-2012, 2014-2015) champion, a two-time World runner-up (2009 and 2011), an Olympic silver medalist (2012), and the world record holder for both portions of the event and the total. Doping concerns, however, saw the entire Russian weightlifting team banned from Rio and left the top podium spot open for the taking. The most likely candidate to claim that honor was China’s Meng Suping, successor to the defending Olympic champion Zhou Lulu. Zhou had been runner-up at the 2013 Worlds, before Meng took over that role in 2014 and 2015. The only other recent World medalist at the tournament was Kim Kuk-Hyang of North Korea, the 2015 bronze medalist. Three recent European Championship medalists also made an appearance: Andreea Aanei of Romania (bronze in 2014 and 2015), Anastasiya Lysenko of Ukraine (silver in 2015), and Anast’asia Hot’pridi of Georgia (silver in 2016).

Kim posted the best result in the snatch portion, at 131 kg, while Meng, who struggled at first, came up only 1 kg short by the end. These two were head and shoulders above the rest of the competition, with the next best result being 126 kg, posted by Sarah Robles of the United States, an Olympic veteran who placed 7th in 2012. Kim and Meng were even more dominant in the clean and jerk portion, but this time it was the former who struggled more, and Meng managed to defeat the North Korean with a 177 kg lift, 2 kg more than Kim could muster.