In 2012, Charisma Amoe-Tarrant emigrated to Australia from her birth country of Nauru. In 2016, she became an Australian citizen. In 2021, she represented 25-million Australians as she became an Olympian in Tokyo.

In what was a much-anticipated Women’s +87kg category, Amoe-Tarrant stepped up to the platform at Tokyo International Forum to make her Olympic debut.

As is the case with weightlifting competitions, she would have six opportunities to lift. Three in the snatch, and three in the clean and jerk.

She started her competition with a 95kg snatch, a lift she performed with ease before moving to 100kg for her second lift, just 1kg shy of her silver medal winning effort at the 2018 Commonwealth Games.

However, in classic Amoe-Tarrant fashion, she dispatched with that weight swiftly. In her third and final lift, the Queensland raised 105kg finalising her score for the snatch and moving on to the clean and jerk.

With a successful first clean and jerk lift at 123kg, Amoe-Tarrant moved to 128kg for her second. As with the snatch, the Aussie breezed through to her third and final, this time with the bar set at 138kg. But Amoe-Tarrant took it in her stride producing yet another clean lift.

All in all, Amoe-Tarrant succeeded in every single one of her six attempts across the snatch, and clean and jerk for a total score of 234kg enough to finish sixth in the event.

The only Australian to place higher at the Olympic Games in weightlifting is Seen Lee with her fourth-place performance at the London 2012 Games.
Even with that performance, Amoe-Tarrant is eager to return to competition.

“I’m happy, I’m satisfied. I think I could have done more if I wasn’t injured. I’m just going to leave it at that and try hard for the next one,” Amoe-Tarrant said.

“I treat every competition I go to, whether it is international, national, or just a club comp, I just treat it the same. I just go out there, do the numbers my coach gives me, and focus on myself.”

In a class of her own was China’s Li Wenwen cruised through the snatch, lifting 140kg, 8kg shy of her own world record set in April. Her clean and jerk following in similar fashion with her best lift of 180kg for a total of 320kg.

In bother the snatch, and clean and jerk, Li’s starting lift was greater than that of all her competitor’s final lift. A dominant performance.

The effort was enough for Li to take home inaugural gold medal in the Women’s +87kg category a full 37kg ahead of Emily Campbell of Great Britain in second.

Sarah Robles of the United States rounded out the podium with bronze just 1kg behind Campbell.

Tuesday will be the final day for weightlifting competition for Australia with Matthew Lydement taking to the platform in the Men’s 109kg.

Matthew Barnard