Chen Xiexia has won China’s first gold medal of the Beijing Olympics by lifting a total of 212 kilograms in the women’s 48-kg weightlifting category. Turkey’s Sibel Ozkan won the silver medal Saturday while Chen Wei-Ling of Taiwan finished third. Chen Xiexia dominated the competition from start to finish, lifting 95 kilogram in the snatch and 117 kilogram in the clean and jerk, an Olympic record.
Ozkan was a distant second with a total of 199 kilograms, 3 kilograms ahead of Chen Wei-Ling. The 2004 Olympic champion, Nurcan Taylan of Turkey, was eliminated after three failed attempts in the snatch.
Although NBC did not provide live television coverage of the spectacular four-hour-long opening ceremony from the Bird’s Nest stadium in Beijing today — and in fact, you won’t be able to see it on television anywhere in the U.S. until tonight (Canadians, and Americans perched along the Canadian border, watched live on CBC) — here on Rings we tapped the power of the Internet to cover the event live.
Silicon Valley Insider put a lot of work into finding ways to watch online and led us to an excellent German-language feed (which was here during the ceremony) that downloaded slowly on some computers but delivered large and clear images. We were also entertained by what seemed to be a live video stream of the Eurosport feed here, with Russian commentary, and some sort of amateur moblogging via Qik here.
Tags: Beijing Olympics
