At a press conference on June 5th one of Taiwan’s most celebrated weightlifters, Hsu Shu-Ching, officially announced her retirement at age 27. The -53kg Olympic gold medalist cited accumulated knee and elbow injuries saying,
I am still recovering from serious injuries sustained last year and cannot undergo training in full. After discussing the matter with my coach, my doctor, the Chinese Taipei Weightlifting Association and leaders in various organizations, I have decided to withdraw from training for the Asian Games in Jakarta and end my career as an athlete.
Hsu Shu-Ching is the first Taiwanese athlete to win two Olympic gold medals in any sport. Here are her four best performances.
1. Rio 2016
The Olympics doesn’t let people us embed their videos directly, so you’ll need to click through, but this serves as a pretty neat short documentary of a competition between the Chinese Li Yajun and the Taiwanese Hsu.
With a 100kg snatch and 112kg clean & jerk, she won her weight class totaling 212 kilograms, a solid 12 kilograms ahead of silver.
[Watch what might be the greatest Olympic weightlifting battle of all time: Süleymanoğlu Vs. Leonidis at the ’96 Olympics.]
2. The 2015 World Weightlifting Championships
This clean & jerk of 125 kilograms earned Hsu the gold medal in the lift and the title of world champion in her weight class.
3. London 2012
Hsu really dominated at the 2012 Games, snatching 96 kilograms (5kg over second place) and clean & jerking 123 kilograms (8kg over second place), securing a 219-kilogram total and her first gold medal. The video above compares her snatch between 2012 and 2016 side by side.
4. The 2014 Asian Games
While her two gold medals are clearly worth celebrating, Hsu’s performance at the 2014 Asian Games earned her a world record in the total that still stands to this day: 233 kilograms, from a combined 101kg snatch and 132kg clean & jerk. The video above starts with the snatch, her clean & jerk begins at 2:19.
It’s unfortunate that Hsu is retiring so reluctantly, but her performances have certainly done her home country proud. She will continue to serve in the sport training young weightlifters at the National Sports Training Center, and promises “to be a good coach to help train more top athletes for the nation.”
Featured image via International Weightlifting Federation on YouTube.
