Kuo Hsing-chun ( zh, t=郭婞淳, p=Guō Xìngchún; Amis name: Tana; born 26 November 1993) is a Taiwanese Amis

weightlifter Weightlifting or weight lifting generally refers to physical exercises and sports in which people lift weights, often in the form of dumbbells, barbells or machines. People engage in weightlifting for a variety of different reasons. These can ...

, Olympic gold medalist, five time world champion, two time Universiade champion, Asian Games champion, and five time Asian champion, competing in the 58 kg division until 2018 and 59 kg starting in 2018 after the

International Weightlifting Federation The International Weightlifting Federation, aka IWF, is the international governing body for the sport of Weightlifting. Headquartered in Lausanne, Switzerland, it has 193 affiliated national federations. Mohammed Hasan Jalood has been its presid ...

reorganized the categories. She has set 11 senior

world records A world record is usually the best global and most important performance that is ever recorded and officially verified in a specific skill, sport, or other kind of activity. The book ''Guinness World Records'' and other world records organizatio ...

in her career.

Early life

Kuo was born in Yilan in 1993. She never knew her biological father, and was raised primarily by her grandmother, as her mother was frequently working. Kuo's given name, Hsing-chun, alludes to the difficult circumstances of her birth, as it sounds similar to hsing tsun (倖存), which means to have survived by luck or accident in Mandarin. When Kuo was born, her umbilical cord wound itself around her neck. In addition, her mother was in labor for over ten hours. The family moved repeatedly, living with several different relatives. Kuo began lifting weights in junior high school, and played a number of sports, including basketball, track and field, and soccer. She chose to specialize in weightlifting in high school.

Career

Olympics

In 2012, she competed at the

2012 Summer Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012, were an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

in the women's 58 kg category and placed sixth overall. At the

2016 Summer Olympics The 2016 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad () and officially branded as Rio 2016, were an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with preliminary events i ...

, she competed in the 58 kg category. In the snatch portion of the competition, she completed her first lift of 102 kg, but was unable to complete her last two lifts of 105 kg. Going into the clean and jerk portion of the competition, she was in third place, as she was 8 kg behind Sukanya Srisurat and tied in weight with Pimsiri Sirikaew ( Pimsiri Sirikaew weighed .46 kg less). In the clean and jerk portion, she completed a 129 kg lift which secured her at least a bronze medal finish. For her final lift, she attempted an Olympic record lift of 139 kg, which would put her in first place, but was unable to lift it. She won a bronze medal with a total of 231 kg. In 2021, she won a gold medal and broke three Olympic records in the women's 59kg weightlifting competition at the

2020 Summer Olympics The officially the and officially branded as were an international multi-sport event that was held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some of the preliminary sporting events beginning on 21 July 2021. Tokyo ...

in Tokyo. She won the bronze medal in the women's 59kg event at the

2024 Summer Olympics The 2024 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad () and branded as Paris 2024, were an international multi-sport event held in France from 26 July to 11 August 2024, with several events started from 24 July. P ...

in Paris, France.

World Championships

In 2013, she competed at the

2013 World Weightlifting Championships The 2013 World Weightlifting Championships were held in Wrocław, Poland. The event took place from October 20 to 27, 2013. Medal summary Men Women Medal table Ranking by Big (Total result) medals Ranking by all medals: Big (Total result ...

in the 58 kg category. After the snatch portion of the competition she was in second place behind Deng Wei, they both had lifted 108 kg, but Deng Wei was 0.46 kg lighter. In the clean and jerk portion of the competition, she lifted 133 kg in her first attempt, after Deng Wei was unable to complete any of her clean and jerks, she had the gold medal secured. Her total of 241 kg was a full 13 kg over the silver medalist

Alexandra Escobar María Alexandra Escobar Guerrero (born 17 July 1980) is an Ecuadorian weightlifter. At the 2001 World Weightlifting Championships in Antalya, Turkey she won gold in the 53 kg category in the clean and jerk, bronze in the snatch, and t ...

. The

2015 World Weightlifting Championships The 2015 World Weightlifting Championships were held in Houston, United States. The event took place from November 19 to 28, 2015. This event was, together with the 2014 World Weightlifting Championships, the first stage of the Weightlifting at t ...

was her first competition back from a disappointing year (due to injury), and she competed in the 58 kg category. After the snatch portion of the competition, she was in fourth place with 103 kg, the leader

Boyanka Kostova Boyanka Kostova (, born 10 May 1993) is a Bulgarian-born naturalized Azerbaijani weightlifter. She competed at the 2012 Summer Olympics in the women's 58 kg, finishing in fifth place. Career In June 2016, following the Russian doping scandal, it ...

set a world record in the snatch with 112 kg. In the clean and jerk portion, she lifted 133 kg with her final lift securing a bronze medal in the clean and jerk and in the total. Kuo Hsing-Chun accpeted souvenirs from President Tsai Ing-wen

Kuo Hsing-Chun accpeted souvenirs from President Tsai Ing-wen

Coming into the

2017 World Weightlifting Championships The 2017 World Weightlifting Championships were held in Anaheim, California, United States from 28 November to 5 December 2017. Doping bans Nine countries were banned from competing at the World Championships due to their history of doping at pre ...

, she was expected to put up a solid performance after her record-setting performance at the

2017 Summer Universiade The 2017 Summer Universiade (), officially known as the XXIX Summer Universiade ( zh, t=第二十九屆夏季世界大學運動會, p=Dì èrshíjiǔ jiè xiàjì shìjiè dàxué yùndònghuì) and commonly called Taipei 2017 ( zh, t=台北201 ...

. She competed in the 58 kg category, against the reigning Olympic Champion Sukanya Srisurat and it was expected to be a close competition. After the snatch portion, Sukanya Srisurat was in the gold medal position with 105 kg, Kuo also lifted the same, but Srisurat had lifted the weight first. In the clean and jerk portion, Sukanya Srisurat had completed all of her attempts before Kuo had attempted any of her lifts. She made her first lift of 126 kg, securing the gold medal. She added onto that total, lifting 135 kg in the clean and jerk, finishing with 240 kg, a full 15 kg more than reigning Olympic Champion, and silver medalist Srisurat. In 2018, the

reorganized the categories, and Kuo competed at the

2018 World Weightlifting Championships The 2018 World Weightlifting Championships were held in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan from 1 to 10 November 2018. This was the first World Championship after the International Weightlifting Federation, IWF changed their weight classes and nullified all w ...

in the new 59 kg category. In the snatch portion, she lifted a new world record of 105 kg, and led going into the clean and jerk portion by 2 kg over the silver medalist

Hoàng Thị Duyên Hoàng Thị Duyên (born 26 April 1996) is a Vietnamese Olympic weightlifter. She won the silver medal in the Snatch in the women's 59 kg event at the 2018 World Weightlifting Championships held in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan. In 2020, she won th ...

and bronze medallist Rebeka Koha. During the clean and jerk portion, she successfully lifted 128 kg in her first attempt, setting a new world record in the total. With her last successful lift of 132 kg she set a new world record in the clean and jerk and total. Chen Guiming, the eventual silver medalist attempted a world record lift of 140 kg, which would have given her the lead, but she was unable to lift it. As a result, Kuo won the gold medal in the total. She set four senior world records in the competition and won her third World Championships. Kuo competed in the

2019 World Weightlifting Championships The 2019 World Weightlifting Championships was held in Pattaya, Thailand from 18 to 27 September 2019. On September 12, Egypt was banned from competing at these Championships due to multiple doping offenses. The host nation, Thailand, was also ba ...

, where she broke two of her own world records in the women's 59 kg category, with 140 kg in the clean and jerk, and 246 kg in the combined lift. In 2021, she won the gold medal in the women's 59 kg event at the

2021 World Weightlifting Championships The 2021 World Weightlifting Championships was a weightlifting competition held from 7 to 17 December in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. Due to concerns about the rapid spread of SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron variant and held shortly after 2020 Summe ...

held in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. She won the silver medal in the women's 59kg event at the

2022 World Weightlifting Championships The 2022 World Weightlifting Championships was a weightlifting competition held in Bogotá, Colombia in December 2022. It was scheduled to be held in Chongqing, China but this changed in March 2022 as a result of COVID-19 measures in China. The ne ...

held in Bogotá, Colombia. In 2023, she won the silver medal in the women's 59kg Clean & Jerk event at the

World Weightlifting Championships The World Weightlifting Championships is an international weightlifting competition, currently held annually (except for years of the Summer Olympic Games) by the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF). The predecessor organization of the I ...

held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Asian Games

Before the

2014 Asian Games The 2014 Asian Games (), officially known as the 17th Asian Games () and also known as Incheon 2014 (), were a pan-Asian multi-sport event held from 19 September to 4 October 2014 in Incheon, South Korea. On 17 April 2007, Incheon was awarded ...

, she suffered an injury to her leg, which left her confined to a wheelchair for a month, as a result of the injury she donated an ambulance to Taitung hospital. Injury notwithstanding, she went on to place fourth at the

in the 58 kg category. She was the flag bearer for

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...

at the

2018 Asian Games The 2018 Asian Games ( or ''Asian Games 2018''), officially known as the 18th Asian Games (), and also known as Jakarta-Palembang 2018 or Indonesia 2018, were a Asia, continental multi-sport event that was held from 18 August to 2 September 201 ...

where she competed in the 58 kg category. After the snatch portion of the competition she led Sukanya Srisurat by 2 kg with 105 kg. In the clean and jerk portion of the competition she secured the gold medal with her first lift of 125 kg, her next attempt was called at 133 kg, but there was an error loading the bar and only 130.5 kg was put on, she made the lift with a lopsided bar (one side weighed 2.5 kg more than the other) and received credit for 130 kg. Her last attempt in the clean and jerk was for a world record weight of 143 kg but she was unable to make the lift.

Universiade

Kuo won gold at the

and set a world record of 142 kg for the

clean and jerk The clean and jerk is a composite of two weightlifting movements, most often performed with a barbell: the clean and the jerk. During the ''clean'', the lifter moves the barbell from the floor to a racked position across the deltoids, without rest ...

in her final lift. Following her performance at the Universiade, Kuo was awarded the

Order of Brilliant Star Order of Brilliant Star () is a civilian order of the Republic of China (Taiwan) recognizing outstanding contributions to the development of the nation. The order is instituted in 1941 and can be awarded to both domestic and foreign nationals. ...

, and chose to donate her winnings, totaling NT$1.9 million ($), back to her community.

Asian Weightlifting Championships

Kuo competed at the 2019 Asian Weightlifting Championships in the 59 kg category. After her second successful lift of 103 kg, she had secured a gold medal in the snatch, and attempted a world record lift of 106 kg which she successfully completed. In the clean and jerk portion, she had a gold medal in the total virtually guaranteed with her second lift of 134 kg, this gave her a new world record total of 240 kg. Her last attempt of 137 kg broke the clean and jerk world record, and the total world record she had just set. Chen Guiming attempted a 138 kg clean and jerk, but was unable to complete the lift which gave Chen a silver medal in the total, a full 10 kg behind gold medalist Kuo.

Major results

*CWR: Current world record *WR: World record

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kuo, Hsing-chun Taiwanese female weightlifters Living people Olympic weightlifters for Taiwan Weightlifters at the 2012 Summer Olympics Weightlifters at the 2016 Summer Olympics Weightlifters at the 2010 Summer Youth Olympics World Weightlifting Championships medalists 1993 births Amis people Sportspeople from Yilan County, Taiwan Olympic bronze medalists for Taiwan Medalists at the 2016 Summer Olympics Olympic medalists in weightlifting Summer World University Games medalists in weightlifting Recipients of the Order of Brilliant Star Medalists at the 2018 Asian Games Medalists at the 2022 Asian Games Asian Games medalists in weightlifting Asian Games gold medalists for Chinese Taipei Asian Games bronze medalists for Chinese Taipei Weightlifters at the 2014 Asian Games Weightlifters at the 2018 Asian Games Weightlifters at the 2022 Asian Games FISU World University Games gold medalists for Chinese Taipei Fu Jen Catholic University alumni Competitors at the 2017 Summer Universiade Medalists at the 2013 Summer Universiade Weightlifters at the 2020 Summer Olympics Weightlifters at the 2024 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 2020 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 2024 Summer Olympics Olympic gold medalists for Taiwan 21st-century Taiwanese sportswomen Taiwanese indigenous sportspeople