Young at heart: Loa Dika Toua of Papa New Guinea celebrates after a lift in the women’s 49kg weightlifting event. — AP
TOKYO: When women’s weightlifting was introduced as an olympic sport in 2000, Papua New Guinea’s then 16-year-old Loa Dika Toua became the first-ever female Olympian lifter. Yesterday in Tokyo, the now 37-year-old athlete did it for the fifth time.
Wearing her country’s flag colours of red and black, Toua grabbed the bar with a scream, lifted 167 kg in total and smiled in joy, making a heart gesture with her hands at the television camera that she said was for her children.
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