Featherweight (≤53 kilograms), Women

Three-time World and reigning Olympic champion in the women’s featherweight Zulfiya Chinshanlo of Kazakhstan failed a doping re-test from the 2012 Summer Games shortly prior to the Rio edition, which made Hsu Shu-Ching of Chinese Taipei a favorite for the gold medal. Hsu was not only the 2012 runner-up (and thus poised to become champion following Chinshanlo’s disqualification), but was also the reigning World champion and the 2014 runner-up. Romania’s Cristina Iovu, the 2012 Olympic bronze medalist and reigning European champion, also found herself entangled in a doping scandal and did not attend the 2016 Games. Other contenders included China’s Li Yajun, the 2013 World Champion and 2014 bronze medalist, and Hidilyn Diaz of the Philippines, the 2015 World bronze medalist. Yuliya Paratova of Ukraine, the 2013 and 2015 European champion and 2014 runner-up, competed in the flyweight division in Rio.

Li bested the Olympic record of her countrywoman Yang Xia, the 2000 Olympic champion, in the snatch with a 101 kg lift, but Hsu was only 1 kg behind. No other competitor lifted more than 90 kg, leaving Li and Hsu the only likely contenders for gold. In the clean and jerk, Li believed she had made a successful 123 kg lift and, far ahead of Hsu’s 112 kg first lift, attempted and failed 126 kg twice. The judges, however, had reversed their decision on Li’s 123 kg lift due to elbow bending and both Li and her coaches claimed not to have known this until after the competition had ended. Thus Hsu, who had failed to lift 126 kg in her second round, declined a third attempt and secured the bronze medal. Diaz also managed to record 112 kg in the clean and jerk, but her much lower snatch posting of 88 kg left her far behind overall in second place. Yoon Jin-Hee of South Korea, the 2008 Olympic runner-up who had returned in 2014 from a three-year retirement, nabbed bronze.