The Hermit Kingdom's Hercules

By ANTOINE WILEY ‘20

Om Yun-Chol is one of the proportionally strongest people in human history. At 5 feet tall and 121 pounds, he might not match most people’s expectations of what a world record shattering athlete looks like; nonetheless, he is a weightlifting machine. Om is a North Korean Olympic gold and silver medalist, a five-time world weightlifting champion, and the current International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) record holder in the men’s 56 kg category clean and jerk (171 kg, a weight three times greater than his own bodyweight). At last week’s 2019 IWF World Championship, Om broke his own clean and jerk world record by 4 kg with a 166 kg lift. He also set the 55kg total (the sum of the clean and jerk, and snatch) world record of 294 kg on his way to winning his fifth world championship.

Om obliterated his competition, lifting 8 kg more than the second place snatch competitor and beating out the runner-up in the clean and jerk by 17 kg. In a progression that defies intuition, Om had failed to lift 163 kg prior to lifting 166 kg, but instead of staying at trying again at that weight, Om upped the weight by 3 kg and nailed the lift. What could possibly be behind Om’s mind-boggling strength? After earning a gold medal and pulling off a titanic clean and jerk at the London 2012 Olympics, Om credited his successes to none other than Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un, saying that “I am very happy and give thanks to our Great Leader for giving me the strength to lift this weight.” The reasons behind Om’s strength, be it Kim Jong-un’s divine will or Om’s work ethic and ability, are a matter for another day, but Om’s power cannot be denied. In the upcoming Tokyo 2020 Olympics, Om is likely to enrich his country’s weightlifting tradition and add an 18th Olympic weightlifting medal to North Korea’s all-time haul. However, the gold medal will be difficult. Om will go up against China’s Long Qingquan, the two-time Olympic champion of the men’s 56 kg division and the Rio Olympics gold-medal winner who set a world record total of 307 kg. Whether or not Om claims the gold, he’s already lifted his way into the annals of weightlifting history, and the stage in Tokyo is set for a lift-off of epic disproportions.

Mark PangSeptember 28, 2019