Dika Toua
Personal information
NationalityPapua New Guinean
Born (1984-06-23) 23 June 1984
Port Moresby
Height1.5 m (4 ft 11 in)
Weight48–53 kg (106–117 lb)
Sport
Country Papua New Guinea
SportWeightlifting
EventWomen's 53 kg
Coached byPaul Coffa
Achievements and titles
Olympic finals5
World finals4
Medal record
Women's weightlifting
Representing  Papua New Guinea
Commonwealth Games
Gold medal – first place2014 Glasgow53 kg
Silver medal – second place2006 Melbourne53 kg
Silver medal – second place2018 Gold Coast53 kg
Pacific Games
Gold medal – first place2007 Apia53 kg
Gold medal – first place2011 Nouméa53 kg
Gold medal – first place2019 Apia49 kg
Commonwealth Championships
Gold medal – first place2012 Apia53 kg
Silver medal – second place2015 Pune53 kg
Silver medal – second place2019 Apia49 kg
Bronze medal – third place2017 Gold Coast53 kg
Pacific Mini Games
Gold medal – first place2017 Port Vila53 kg
Gold medal – first place2021 Saipan49 kg
Oceania Championships
Gold medal – first place2002 Suva53 kg
Gold medal – first place2003 Nuku'alofa53 kg
Gold medal – first place2004 Suva53 kg
Gold medal – first place2005 Melbourne53 kg
Gold medal – first place2007 Apia53 kg
Gold medal – first place2008 Auckland53 kg
Gold medal – first place2012 Apia53 kg
Gold medal – first place2013 Brisbane53 kg
Gold medal – first place2014 Le Mont-Dore53 kg
Gold medal – first place2017 Gold Coast53 kg
Gold medal – first place2018 Le Mont-Dore53 kg
Gold medal – first place2019 Apia49 kg
Gold medal – first place2022 Saipan49 kg

Loa Dika Toua (born 23 June 1984) is a Papua New Guinean Olympian weightlifter. She competed at the 2020 Summer Olympics, in Women's −49 kg.[1]

She competes regularly in the 53 kg weight class. She is a 13 time, and current, Oceania titlist and a Commonwealth titlist.[2] She is also the current Pacific Games champion.[3][4]

Career

Olympic games

At just 16 years of age, she was the inaugural woman to lift weight at an Olympic event, competing in the 48 kg category at the Sydney 2000 Summer Olympics.[5] Toua finished in tenth place with a total lift of 117.5 kg.

She was the national flag bearer at the Athens 2004 Summer Olympics opening ceremony. This time competing in the women's 53 kg weight class, she lifted a total of 177.5 kg to place in sixth position.[6]

Toua qualified for Papua New Guinea in the women's 53 kg event at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.[7] There she ranked 7th with a total lift of 184 kg which was her highest personal lift overall at any Olympics she has attended to date.[2]

She again, for the fourth consecutive time, represented Papua New Guinea at the London 2012 Summer Olympics. Lifting a total of 174 kg, the veteran weightlifter finished in 12th after Zulfiya Chinshanlo of Kazakhstan and Cristina Iovu of Moldova were disqualified.[8]

She represented Papua New Guinea, for the fifth time at the 2020 Summer Olympics.[9][10][11]

Commonwealth games

In 2002 she attended the Manchester Commonwealth Games at the 48kg weight category, lifting 75kg in the clean and jerk which would have placed her 4th, official records show no weight in the snatch.[12]

In 2006, she won the silver medal in the 53 kg weight class at the 2006 Commonwealth Games.[13] It was her first major achievement at an international competition.

Competing in the same category at the 2014 Commonwealth Games, she won the silver medal, with a lift of 193 kg, just 3 kilos short of the gold and new games record.[14] Days later, the original gold medalist, 16-year-old Chika Amalaha of Nigeria failed a doping test and was stripped of her medal and placement.[15] With the medals redistributed, Toua was now the gold medalist and her lift of 193 kg became the new games record.[16]

In 2018, competing in her third games in the Gold Coast she placed second once again for her second Commonwealth games silver and third medal overall. She was 10 kilos behind the gold medalist after failing her last two lifts.[17] A month after the games ended the International Weightlifting Federation, in June, announced that the original winner, Khumukcham Sanjita Chanu of India, tested positive for testosterone from her A sample after the 2017 World Championships. The IWF had stated that if the Indian weightlifters B sample also returns positive.[18] In January 2019 the IWF has revoked the provisional suspension of Chanu and let to keep her gold medal.[19]

She finished in 5th place in the women's 49 kg event at the 2022 Commonwealth Games held in Birmingham, England.[20]

Major results

Year Venue Weight Snatch (kg) Clean & Jerk (kg) Total Rank
1 2 3 Rank 1 2 3 Rank
Olympic Games
2000Australia Sydney, Australia48 kg45 45501062.567.572.5 10117.510
2004Greece Athens, Greece53 kg707580 792.597.5102.56177.56
2008China Beijing, China53 kg77 77807104108 108 61847
2012United Kingdom London, Great Britain53 kg7579 791295100 100 1217412
2021Japan Tokyo, Japan49 kg697276 1295 95100 816710
World Championships
2003Canada Vancouver, Canada53 kg657072.5 2187.592.595 21162.521
2005Qatar Doha, Qatar53 kg77 7983 9105 105 105 ------
2007Dominican Republic Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic53 kg7478 78 3096101 1011817522
2015United States Houston, United States53 kg7680 8022103106 109 2018320

Personal life

Toua gave birth to her first child in 2007 to husband, Mavera Gavera. She now has two children, Paul and Ani-Geua.[21] She owns her own weightlifting club in Port Moresby.[22]

References

  1. ↑ "Weightlifting TOUA Loa Dika". Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Archived from the original on 27 July 2021. Retrieved 4 September 2021.
  2. 1 2 "TOUA Dika". International Weightlifting Federation. Archived from the original on 27 May 2011.
  3. ↑ 2007 South Pacific Games: Women's Weightlifting results
  4. ↑ The National (PNG): "Day of medals", 29 August 2007 Archived 19 December 2007 at the Wayback Machine
  5. ↑ "Toua lifting the hearts of an island" [sic], Olympic.org
  6. ↑ "TOUA Dika". International Weightlifting Federation. Archived from the original on 27 May 2011.
  7. ↑ "PNG Olympians land major sponsors" Archived 7 June 2008 at the Wayback Machine, ABC Radio Australia, 6 June 2008
  8. ↑ "Dika Toua Bio, Stats, and Results". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Archived from the original on 18 April 2020. Retrieved 17 August 2015.
  9. ↑ Miranda, Gabriela. "Weightlifter Loa Dika Toua 'never imagined' competing in a second Olympics. She just shattered a record with her fifth". USA TODAY. Retrieved 4 September 2021.
  10. ↑ "Weightlifting record-breaker Dika back on platform, 21 years after Olympic debut". www.insidethegames.biz. 23 July 2021. Retrieved 4 September 2021.
  11. ↑ "Weightlifting-Papua New Guinea's Toua becomes first 5-time woman Olympian lifter". Reuters. 24 July 2021. Retrieved 4 September 2021.
  12. ↑ "Papua New Guinea Manchester 2002 | Commonwealth Games Federation". thecgf.com. Retrieved 23 July 2021.
  13. ↑ Sports 123: Weightlifting: Commonwealth Games 2006: Women: -53 kg Archived 29 September 2007 at the Wayback Machine
  14. ↑ "Commonwealth Games Biography - Dika Toua". 8 August 2014. Retrieved 17 August 2015.
  15. ↑ "Nigeria weightlifter Chika Amalaha stripped of Commonwealth Games gold". The Guardian. 1 August 2014. Retrieved 2 August 2014.
  16. ↑ "Glasgow 2014 - Women's 53kg Group A". g2014results.thecgf.com. Retrieved 17 August 2015.
  17. ↑ "Toua bags silver this time". ABC Australia. 5 April 2018. Retrieved 6 April 2018.
  18. ↑ "Sport: PNG lifter in line for gold after opponent fails doping test". Radio New Zealand. 4 June 2018. Retrieved 4 June 2018.
  19. ↑ "CWG gold medallist weightlifter Sanjita Chanu's provisional suspension revoked". India Today. 23 January 2019. Retrieved 29 May 2020.
  20. ↑ Rowbottom, Mike (30 July 2022). "India's Chanu reigns supreme in women's weightlifting 49kg class". InsideTheGames.biz. Retrieved 30 July 2022.
  21. ↑ "Toua and family". The National. 11 August 2014. Retrieved 11 August 2014.
  22. ↑ "Dika Toua background". PNG facts. 7 January 2013. Retrieved 7 January 2013.
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