An amateur singer cleans a bar: Five Korean weightlifters head to Paris

Olympic Sports

Published: 23 Jul. 2024, 14:40 Updated: 23 Jul. 2024, 16:15

An amateur singer cleans a bar: Five Korean weightlifters head to Paris

Kim Su-hyeon trains at a media day at Jincheon National Training Center in Jincheon, North Chungcheong on June 26. [YONHAP]

Five Korean weightlifters, one of them an amateur singer, are headed to the Paris Olympics where the sport will run from Aug. 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 seek to top the podium among the men.

Kim, a back-to-back gold medalist at the 2023 and 2024 Asian weightlifting championships — though in separate weight categories — is headed to Paris for her first Olympics.

Park will also be making her debut in the Olympics on the back of a slate of international honors. She won a gold medal in the women’s 87 kilogram category at IWF World Weightlifting Championships 2023 and also banked golds at the Hangzhou Asian Games and 2024 Asian championships.

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

Bak will be heading to the Olympics for the first time, decorated in both sport and song. He earned a silver medal in the men’s clean and jerk at the 2023 Asian weightlifting championships and won an episode of the domestic “I Can See Your Voice” singing competition the same year — which begs the question of whether he will indulge in any serenading throughout his time à Paris.

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

Jang will be heading to the Olympics for the first time on the back of a silver medal finish in the men’s 102kg category in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia for the 2023 world championships.

Yu is the only member of Korea’s weightlifting squad that has been to a previous Olympics — competing in Tokyo in 2021 and Rio in 2016.

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

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

The snatch is when the athlete must lift the barbell in one motion which requires strength and speed.

The clean and jerk is a two-step lift where the athlete brings the barbell to his shoulders and then lifts it above the head.

All weightlifters must complete both lifts three times. Their best scores from each event will count toward their final score.

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

If the athletes weigh the same, then the weightlifter with fewer attempts wins.

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

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

Korea has 16 weightlifting medals, including three gold.

BY MARY YANG, KEVIN CHUNG [mary.yang@joongang.co.kr]