Kuo Hsing-chun's Family Celebrates Gold Medal 郭婞淳舉金 台東體中盼爭回母校當教練

Kuo Hsing-chun not only won Chinese Taipei's first gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics, she set a new Olympic record in the women's 59-kg weight class. Her family, friends, and high school coaches celebrated with firecrackers, and hope Kuo's win can attract more aspiring athletes to train as weightlifters and a more complete training system.

Friends and family of Chinese Taipei weightlifter Kuo Hsing-chun celebrated her gold medal win  Chinese Taipei's first at the Tokyo Olympics  with firecrackers in her hometown of Taitung. Kuo's achievement is the result of years of hard work that few people know about. Bausun Junior High School's Lin Shang-yi was the first to see Kuo's potential, and she was her first coach. Lin encouraged her to apply to the weightlifting program at National Taitung University Affiliated Physical Education Senior High School, where she was trained by Pu Ya-ling of the Paiwan Tribe. Both the school and coach are proud to say Kuo is locally developed talent, and the local community being one big family helped to provide Kuo with what she needed to get to where she is today.

Pu Ya-ling, Weightlifting Coach, NTPEHS："Every athlete is individual and I believe their training has to be tailored to their individual needs."

Chen Ming-chih, Principal, NTPEHS："I'm hoping that one day when people ask where to go for weightlifting training, Taitung will be the first choice. Specifically, National Taiwan University Affiliated Physical Education High School."

Kuo is now the pride and joy of not just Taitung, but also Taiwan. However, her high school has had problems recruiting students in recent years despite a full training staff and excellent facilities. It hopes Kuo will join its training staff one day to train local talents and establish a complete and uninterrupted training system from elementary school to junior and senior high school.

舉重國手郭婞淳在東京奧運一舉拿下我國第一面金牌，在台東的母親和親友加油團，馬上放鞭炮慶祝這難得的一刻。郭婞淳能拿下金牌，一路訓練培養的艱辛過程，很少人知道。郭婞淳就讀台東縣寶桑國中就被林尚儀教練發掘出她有舉重潛力，開始培養，教練還鼓勵她就讀立台東體中練舉重項目，也接受在地排灣族教練蒲雅玲訓練，一路都是在地培養。學校和教練認為，透過在地人培養在地人，就像照顧家人一樣，才能深入瞭解並提供選手的需求，紮實的進行培訓。

台東體中舉重教練 蒲雅玲表示：「我可能會比較重點在哪裡，還比較適切給予他們所需要的。」

台東體中校長 陳明志表示：「也就是變成說，舉重，你要到哪裡去？講到第一個地區台東，台東有什麼地方可以去去訓練？體中！」

郭婞淳一舉奪金，不但是台灣之光也是台東之光。台東體中表示，這幾年受到學生員額不足的影響，招生面臨困難，不過，學校有完整的教練群和設備，未來也會爭取郭婞淳回校擔任教練，以在地人培養在地人，甚至建立完整的舉重三級訓練模式。