By Julian Linden, OCA Media
Nagoya, Japan, September 23, 2026: Pint-sized weightlifter Ri Song-gum from DPR Korea was credited with three new women's world records after she completed a rare three-peat of gold medals at the Asian Games on Wednesday.
Ri's compatriot Kang Hyon-gyong then made it a golden double for their country by winning the women’s featherweight (53kg) division for the second time in a row with a combined lift of 223 kilograms.
Ri lifted 94 kg in the snatch then hoisted 121kg in the clean and jerk, almost two and a half times her own body weight, for a combined total of 215kg to easily win the gold in the women’s bantamweight (49kg) category, the lightest classification.
Ri had previously won gold in 2018 and 2022 but her latest lifts were all recognised as world records because the sport’s global governing body has annulled all the previous marks after restructuring its weight classes.
With her victory at the Nagoya City Trade and Industry Center, the 28-year-old pocket dynamo provided her country with its first gold medal at the 20th Asian Games, which was soon followed by a second from Kang, the two-time reigning world champion.
Also a double world champion, Ri became the first female weightlifter to win three golds in a row at the Asian Games but said her success was shared by all the others who helped her along the way.
“The world record and this gold medal hold great meaning for me, because of everything I poured into this competition,” Ri said.
“I wanted to honour my country with a gold medal while I am still young. That is why preparing for these Asian Games mattered so much to me, and why it became a turning point in spending my youth worthily.
“I stepped out there alone. But in truth this gold medal rests on my country and its people, on the young compatriots, on every one of them.”
India’s Mirabai Chanu, a police superintendent in her homeland, won the silver with a combined lift of 198kg to finally claim her first Asian Games medal after previously winning medals at the Olympics, world championships and Commonwealth Games.
“There was pressure, but not that much pressure that I could not win a medal,” she said.
“I had the belief in me that I would be able to win. There were expectations, people who believed in me: my coaches, my support staff, and I made sure to win a medal for my country.”
The bronze medal was won by Indonesia’s former junior world champion Luluk Diana Tri Wijayana.
“This was a good performance, and the next will be better,” she said. “We’ll put in the training and competition, and train, train, train again to do better."