The women's over-75-kilograms competition took center stage at the weightlifting portion of the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro on Sunday.China's Meng Supingcaptured the gold medal with a total of 307 kilograms, whileNorth Korea's KimKuk-Hyangwon the silver with 306 kilograms, and the United States' Sarah Roblestook home the bronze with 286 kilograms.Here is a look at the medal winners and a breakdown of the two groups that competed Sunday,courtesy of the Rio Games' official website:Group ARobles, who finished in seventh place in the 2012 Games in London and was the one American representative in Sunday's contest, started off with a solid 126-kilogram snatch in Group A.USA Weightlifting shared the impressive showing:However, Meng tallied a snatch of 130 kilograms, which put herin first place until Kim seized the lead before the clean and jerk with a snatch of 131 kilograms.Robles gained some momentum back and temporarily took over first place after a clean and jerk of 160 kilograms, but Kim responded and raised her total to 293 kilograms. Meng and Kim then traded the lead until Meng clinched the gold with a formidable clean and jerk of 177 kilograms. That brought her total to 307 kilograms for the competition.As for Robles, she clinched the first weightlifting medal for the United States since the 2000 Games, perAmy Donaldson of theDeseret News. She was thrilled after winning the bronze, via NBC Olympics:The medal represents the culmination of Robles' comeback in weightlifting. According toDan Levinsohn of NBC Olympics, she was banned from the sport from 2013 to 2015 because she tested positive for steroids. Before the suspension, she finished in first place in her division at the USA Weightlifting National Championships every year from 2009 to 2012.She finished in sixth place at the 2015 World Championships but earned an Olympic medal Sunday.Group BVenezuela'sYaniuska Isabel Espinosa dictated the tone in Group B from the early going and finished with the best mark (273 kilograms). Ukraine'sAnastasiia Lysenko (263 kilograms) and Tunisia'sYosra Dhieb (249 kilograms) rounded out the top three, with Georgia'sAnastasiia Hotfrid (248 kilograms) coming up just short ofDhieb's total.Espinosa posted a snatch of 121 kilograms and took the lead into the clean-and-jerk portion of the event. While Dhieb briefly surpassed her with a second clean-and-jerk attempt of 138 kilograms, Espinosa left little doubt over who the best weightlifter in Group B was Sunday.Danny Quinof NBC Olympicsobserved theVenezuelan was "not messing around" as she gradually built on a clean and jerk of 145 kilograms to 149 kilograms to 152 kilograms. It ensured her position atop the leaderboard before Group A and put her at a total of 273 kilograms.While her mark didn't hold up when Robles, Meng and Kim went in Group A, it was an impressive performance on the Olympic stage.ReactionRobles talked about her mindset during the performance, per Kevin Farley of TeamUSA.org:My main thought was just really pulling on the bar andgetting underneath it and I knew the rest would take care of itself. I wasn't really thinkingabout medals I just really thinking about having Sarah's day and if it got me medals, cool,if it didn't then at least I had the best day. You can't complain when you do your absolutebest.She also discussed her final clean-and-jerk lift, per Farley: I remember my coach saying it's eight seconds against the rest of yourlife. So I was like 'I can do eight seconds, I've done eight seconds before, so I can do itagain.Thanks to those eight seconds and her showing on Sunday, she will be known as an Olympic medalist the rest of her life.
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