China’s Wang Mingjuan was the 2002-03 World Champion and the world record holder but she was bypassed for the 2004 team by Li Zhao, who immediately became the favorite. However, the lead after the snatch was taken by Turkey’s Nurcan Taylan, the 2004 European Champion, who broke the world record with a lift of 95.0 kg, followed by another world record of 97.5 kg. When Taylan cleaned & jerked 112.5 kg, Li was forced to try 120.0 kg in the clean & jerk but missed badly on two attempts, giving the gold medal to Taylan. Taylan became the first Turkish woman to win a gold medal, which brought her a $273,000 reward from the state and a phone call from the Turkish President. Fourth-place was initially given to Myanmar’s Nan Aye Khine but she ran afoul of the doping tests.