Taiwan’s Lin Tzu-hui (林資惠) yesterday won the powerlifting gold in the women’s 75kg category at the Beijing Paralympics Games.
Lin, who was defending her title from the 2004 Athens Paralympics, took an early lead by lifting 137.5kg in her first attempt — the same weight that earned her the title in Athens.
With none of her competitors registering to lift the same weight, Lin made two attempts at 142.5kg to break the Paralympic record of 140kg set by China’s Li Ruifang (李瑞芳) at the Sydney Paralympics in 2000. Both attempts failed.
PHOTO: AP
After winning, Lin said: “I don’t want to be a second-class citizen. I hope President Ma [Ying Jeou, (馬英九)] sees the importance of this medal.”
Lin said that as defending champion she felt tremendous pressure and credited her coach, Chen Ying-teh (陳穎德), with helping her relieve her stress by talking to her and helping her analyze her opponents.
Lin left her temporary job at the Changhua County Department of Social Affairs two years ago to prepare for the Paralympics. With support from her family, she put all her efforts into her training.
When she called her mother after winning the medal, Lin cried so hard that at first her mother believed her daughter had failed to win a medal. It was only after Lin’s coach spoke to her that she realized her daughter had won.
Lin said she started going to the gym at the age of 17 to lose weight and to relieve some of the pressure from university entrance exams. It was then that she met Chen.
During these 11 years of hard training, she said there were times when she thought of abandoning it all, especially around the time of her graduation from senior high school. Another reason was that Taiwan’s system for helping and protecting disabled athletes was inadequate. It was thanks to Chen’s encouragement that she managed to go on and win the gold in the same discipline in Athens in 2004.
Chen also gave up his job to assist Lin and has constantly been at her side during the past two years.
In 1998, after only two months as a powerlifting athlete, Lin qualified for the national team and won a bronze medal at the world championships.
She barely missed a medal at the Sydney Paralympics in 2000, where she lifted the same weight as the bronze medallist, but placed fourth because she was heavier. After that experience, she started paying more attention to her weight and in yesterday’s competition she was the second-lightest at 72.9kg. Lin said she had shed 5kg after arriving in Beijing, but added that having lost too much weight might have been the reason she failed in her attempt to break the record.
Lin said that during training, she regularly lifts 147.5kg and felt she should have set a new Paralympic record with relative ease.
Lin said she now hoped she would be able to find a steady job, adding that she could try to defend her gold a second time in London four years from now.
The gold was Taiwan’s first medal in the Beijing Paralympics. The silver went to Egypt’s Mohamed Randa Tageldin, who lifted 135kg, and world-record holder Zhang Liping (張麗萍) from China took the bronze by lifting 132.4kg.
Tseng Lung-hui (曾隆輝) also took an archery bronze in the men’s individual recurve.
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