Park Hye-jeong

Park Hye-jeong

Personal information
Citizenship	South Korea
Born	(2003-03-12) 12 March 2003 Ansan, South Korea
Sport
Sport	Weightlifting
Weight class	+87 kg
Medal record Women's weightlifting Representing South Korea Olympic Games 2024 Paris +81 kg World Championships 2023 Riyadh +87kg Asian Games 2022 Hangzhou +87kg Asian Championships 2024 Tashkent +87kg

Park Hye-jeong (Korean: 박혜정, born March 12, 2003) is a female weightlifter from South Korea. She is one of the strongest women in the world.

Career

She began her career as a weightlifter in Ansan when she was in her first year at Seonbu Middle School, and in 2019, she was selected for the South Korean youth national team and participated in the 2019 Asian Youth Athletics Championships held in Pyongyang, she set new youth records with 110 kg in snatch, 145 kg in clean and jerk, and 255 kg in total, defeating Aysamal Sansizbayeva (Kazakhstan) and Tang Zhiji (Taipei, China) to win the title.

Selected as a member of the 2022 junior national team, she participated in the 2022 Junior World Weightlifting Championships held in Heraklion, Greece last May and won gold medals with records of 120 kg in snatch, 161 kg in clean and jerk. In July of the same year, she competed at the 2022 Asian Junior Championships in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, where she won gold medals, defeating Sansizbayeva with records of 115 kg in snatch, 155 kg in clean and jerk, and 270 kg in total.

Weightlifting Skill

Park's weightlifting technique stands out among her female competitors. During the 2024 IWF World Cup in Thailand—the last chance qualifier for the Olympic Games—her clean and jerk skill is described as "a different technique that only she knows about" that is "solid," "energetic," and "precise."

2023 World Championships

She was selected for the senior national team and qualified for the 2022 World Weightlifting Championships, Colombia in December. In this competition, she ranked 8th with 119 kg in snatch, 155 kg in clean and jerk, and 274 kg in total. The following year, in May 2023, she competed at the 2023 Asian Championships in Jinju, South Korea, winning silver medals with records of 127 kg in snatch, 168 kg in clean and jerk, and 295 kg total. Later, at the 2023 World Weightlifting Championships held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in September, she took first place in both the snatch and clean and jerk with a weight of 123 kg, a clean and jerk of 165 kg, and a total of 289 kg.

2024 Paris Olympics

Park competed at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, France. She lifted 131 kg for the snatch (which was her personal record), then 168 kg for the clean and jerk. Her total score of 299 points won her a silver medal and set a new lifting score record for South Korea. Park shared the podium with China's Li Wenwen, who won the gold medal, and Great Britain's, Emily Campbell, who won the bronze medal. After the competition, Park posted on Instagram:

"There were a lot of things that happened in preparation for the Paris Olympics. Thanks to the staff of the Weightlifting Federation, the coach, and my loving family, I think I was able to get to this place by overcoming the hard things. . . Thanks to this Olympics, I think I gained strength that I never had thanks to the support and advice of many people and the loud cheers of those who came to the stadium." (English Translation)

2028 Los Angeles Olympics

According to her Instagram post, Park says she is planning on competing in the next Olympics competition in 2028. She wrote:

"I would like to ask you a lot of interest in Korean weightlifting from now on, and I will do my best to aim for a gold medal at the LA Olympics." (English Translation)

Korean Reality Shows

In 2024, she appeared in episode #519 of I Live Alone, a popular Korean reality series where she showed her daily routine living in an athlete's dorm, training with fellow weightlifting competitors, and taking direction from her coach. She's shown as having a warm personality, a sense of humor, and good rapport with fellow male athletes. Park has a unique life as a female athlete in Korea where she lives in a dorm primarily with male athletes and has her own small apartment in the building, but eats and trains alongside her male peers daily. She also appeared in episodes #263-264 for Boss in the Mirror, another Korean reality show.