Despite being one of Team China’s best athletes and having the strength to snatch more than twice her own weight, 49-kilogram Jiang Huihua has never been to the Olympic Games.

In 2021 and 2024, her teammate, Hou Zhihui, competed in the women’s lightweight division at the Olympics. Hou won gold both times.

Yet Jiang has world-record caliber strength — and a few actual world records — backing her up. The proof is in the pudding, according to this 99-kilogram (218.2-pound) snatch.

Jiang Huihua | Unofficial World Record Snatch

Jiang has the strength to snatch more than double her own body weight. You’d think it would be enough to book an Olympic ticket, especially considering the current 49-kilogram women’s snatch world record stands at 97 kilograms, held by teammate Hou.

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This lift hit the ‘net on Sep. 12, 2024, roughly a month after the ’24 Olympics in Paris had wrapped up. In the weeks after Paris, many of the world’s best weightlifters decided to unseal the vault and spam the internet with their best lifts from the Paris qualification period.

Since mid-2022, Jiang had kept herself in the driver’s seat and, presumably, would have been Team China’s lightweight selection for Paris.

But at the last second, teammate Hou narrowly surpassed Jiang on the International Weightlifting Federation’s (IWF) qualification leaderboard. The duo had competed against one another several times in the 18-month period; it wasn’t until the last-chance qualifier, the IWF World Cup, that the wind shifted:

Hou Zhihui: 217 (97/120)

Jiang Huihua: 208 (94/114)

Prior to this event, Jiang had positioned herself as the world-number-two behind North Korea’s Ri Song Gum thanks to her 216-kilogram Total from the IWF Grand Prix II in Dec. ’23.

Hou leapfrogged Jiang at the last second by a single kilogram, booking herself a Paris ticket in the process — countries could only send one athlete per category, and the athlete with the highest Total in the qualification period got the bid.

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The Best To Never Do It

Jiang is a powerhouse athlete. Her competitive career stands a cut above many of her Chinese teammates; Team China as a whole is the world’s most dominant weightlifting roster of the 21st century.

Over the course of her career, Jiang has achieved:

5 World-level medals, including four golds

2 World junior medals; one gold and one silver

Gold at the 2014 Youth Olympic Games

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She’s also set four Senior world records during her career — two in the clean & jerk, and two in the weightlifting Total. Yet despite competing internationally since 2013, she’s never realized her Olympic dream.

On May 14, 2024, Jiang posted a message on social media indicating her withdrawal from the Chinese national team, though it is unclear whether she’s decided to formally retire from weightlifting.

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Featured Image: @wht190217 / Instagram

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