21 Asians Who Are First-Time Olympic Champions

From Hidilyn Diaz to Suni Lee, here are 21 Asian athletes who won gold medals for the first time at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

1. Hidilyn Diaz: Weightlifting

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Hidilyn Diaz, a 30-year-old airwoman sergeant for the Philippine Air Force, is the first Filipino to ever win an Olympic gold medal in a non-exhibition sport. She also set an Olympic weightlifting record with her combined weight total of 224 kilograms across two successful lifts. Previous awards Diaz has won include winning the silver medal in the 53-kilogram women's weightlifting category at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

2. Sunisa Lee: Artistic Gymnastics

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Sunisa "Suni" Lee, a 19-year-old Hmong American gymnast, won gold in the women's all-around gymnastics event. She is the first Hmong American to compete in the Olympics and also won bronze in uneven bars and silver for women's artistic team all-around.

3. Momiji Nishiya: Skateboarding

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Momiji Nishiya, a 13-year-old Japanese skateboarder, won gold in women's skateboarding. In the sport's debut at the Games, she goes down in history as one of the youngest medalists ever to compete in the Olympics. Previous awards Nishiya has won include the silver medal at the 2019 and 2021 X Games.

4. Lee Kiefer: Fencing

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Lee Kiefer, a 27-year-old Filipino American fencer, won gold in the women's foil individual category. This win comes at Kiefer's third Olympics, having previously competed at the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro and the 2012 Games in London. She is the first Asian American woman to win fencing, and she did it while in medical school.

5. Maggie MacNeil: Swimming

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Maggie MacNeil, a 21-year-old Chinese Canadian swimmer, took home the gold in the women's 100m butterfly category and set a new record for the Americas. MacNeil’s reaction to the win has become a viral hit, as she was seen squinting and not realizing that she had won.

She also won silver in the Women's 4x100m freestyle relay and bronze in the women's 4x100m medley relay team categories.

6. Neeraj Chopra: Athletics

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Neeraj Chopra, a 23-year-old track and field athlete from Panipat, took home gold in javelin and made history by winning India's first ever gold medal in athletics as well as India's first gold medal in the 2020 Games. Previous awards Chopra has won include gold at both the 2017 Asian Championships and 2018 Asian Games.

7. Guan Chenchen: Artistic Gymnastics

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Guan Chenchen, a 16-year-old gymnast from Jingzhou, won gold in women's balance beam. According to her Olympic profile, Simone Biles, who won bronze in the same category, is her sporting idol. Previous awards she has won include Master of Sport, given by the General Administration of Sport of China in 2018.

8. Yuto Horigome: Skateboarding

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Yuto Horigome, a 22-year-old Japanese skateboarder, took home the gold in the men's street skateboarding category. Horigome adds an Olympic gold medal to his list of awards, which includes first place in the 2018 Dew Tour, 2019 X Games, and the 2021 World Championships.

9. Li Fabin: Weightlifting

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Li Fabin, a 27-year-old Chinese weightlifter from Beijing, won gold in the men's 61-kilogram category for weightlifting. He showcased his signature move of lifting his right leg off the ground and into the air during his performance and broke two Olympic records while doing so. His record-breaking lifts include lifting 172 kilograms in the clean and jerk and 313 kilograms in the total category.

10. Mizutani Jun and Ito Mima: Table Tennis

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Mizutani Jun and Ito Mima, 32 years old and 20 years old respectively, won the mixed doubles category in table tennis for Japan. Ito also won bronze in women's singles and silver for women's team table tennis. Both Mizutani and Ito have previously competed in the Games, with Mizutani winning bronze in singles and silver for team and Ito winning bronze for team during the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro.

11. Cheung Ka Long: Fencing

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Cheung Ka Long, a 24-year-old Hong Kong fencer, took home the gold in the men's foil individual category. This is the first gold medal Hong Kong has won in 25 years.

12. Kuo Hsing-Chun: Weightlifting

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Kuo Hsing-Chun, a 27-year-old Taiwanese woman, brought home the gold to Taiwan by winning in the women's 59-kilogram category in weightlifting. This victory comes after winning bronze in the women's 58-kilogram category in the 2016 Olympic Games. Dubbed the "Goddess of Weightlifting," she not only won gold but set three Olympic records by lifting 103kg in the snatch category, 133kg in the clean and jerk category, and 236 kg for the two categories combined.

13. Kim Je-deok: Archery

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Kim Je-deok, a 17-year-old archer, won two gold medals in the men's team and mixed team categories in archery. This win makes him the youngest gold medalist in South Korea.

14. Greysia Polii and Apriyani Rahayu: Badminton

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Greysia Polii (left) and Apriyani Rahayu (right), 33 years old and 23 years old respectively, brought home the gold to Indonesia in women's doubles in badminton. This is Polii's third Olympics, having competed in the 2012 and 2016 Games. For Rahayu, this is their first Olympics. Both boast many awards and medals from previous competitions, which include the World Championships, Asian Games, and Asian Championships.

15. Sakura Yosozumi: Skateboarding

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Sakura Yosozumi, a 19-year-old skater from Japan, won gold in the women's park category. Previous awards Yosozumi has won include first at the 2018 World Skate Park Championships and first at the 2019 VPS Pro Tour.

16. Zou Jingyuan: Artistic Gymnastics

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Zou Jingyuan, a 23-year-old gymnast from Yibin, took home the gold for China with his performance in men's parallel bars with a score of 16.233, the highest in any event by any gymnast during the Tokyo Games. He also won bronze in the men's team category for artistic gymnastics.

17. Lee Yang and Wang Chi-Lin: Badminton

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Lee Yang and Wang Chi-Lin, 25 years old and 26 years old respectively, brought home Taiwan's first ever gold medal in badminton after defeating China's in the men's double category. This duo has previous awards under their belt, including Lee Yang winning the men's doubles at the 2017 French Open in Paris, France and Wang Chi-Lin winning bronze in men's doubles at the 2018 World Championships in Nanjing, China.

18. Zhang Yufei: Swimming

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Zhang Yufei, a 23-year-old swimmer from Xuzhou, won a few gold medals and set a few records during this year's Games. First, she won gold in the women's 200m butterfly with an Olympic record time of 2:03.86. An hour later, she returned to the water to win in the 4x200 freestyle relay and set another record with Team China's time of 7:40:33. Zhang also placed second in the100m butterfly, behind Maggie MacNeil, and won silver in mixed 4x100m medley relay. She is dubbed China's "butterfly queen."

19. Shin Jea-hwan: Artistic Gymnastics

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Shin Jea-hwan, a 23-year-old South Korean gymnast, took home the gold in men's vault and became the country's second ever Olympic gymnastics champion. Shin adds Olympic champion to his other titles, which include two-time World Cup champion on vault.

20. Quan Hongchan: Diving

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Quan Hongchan, a 14-year-old Chinese diver, won her gold medal by performing two dives that the judges scored unanimously as 10 in the women’s 10-meter platform diving. She also received a third 10 after two judges’ scores were discounted and is China’s youngest athlete at the Tokyo Games.

21. Ryo Kiyuna: Karate

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Ryo Kiyuna, a 31-year-old Okinawa native, made history by winning the first gold medal in men's kata during the sport's Olympic debut. Kiyuna, who is also a three-time world champion, is the first gold medalist ever from the southern islands.

All I have to say is...

A*Pop @apopbf

wow i love to see asians win

07:54 PM - 29 Jul 2021

Twitter: @apopbf