Lydia Ko can’t hold back her tears on stage

Like Scottie Scheffler last week, Lydia Ko broke down in tears when the New Zealand national anthem was played at the Golf National on Saturday in honor of her gold medal in the women’s golf tournament at the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Lydia Ko, Olympic Games

The one who won it all for the others burst into tears as the New Zealand flag rose in the sky of Saint-Quentin-En-Yvelines on Saturday. With the gold medal around her neck on the top step of the podium at last, Lydia Ko burst into tears as she heard “God Defend New Zealand” with her hand on her chest.

Second in Rio, third in Tokyo, the Kiwi who holds almost all records for precocity dreamed of an Olympic title and that is now a foregone conclusion. Lydia Ko, born on 24 April 1997, is a New Zealand-born South Korean golfer. She became world number 1.

1 on 2 February 2015, aged 17 years, 9 months and 8 days, making her the youngest golfer, male or female, to reach the top of the rankings. With her victory at the Evian Championship on 13 September 2015, she also became the youngest female winner of a major tournament, aged 18 years, 4 months and 20 days.

In her career, she has won 14 titles on the LPGA Tour, two majors, a silver medal in the individual at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro and a bronze medal, also in the individual, at the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo. She took part in the women’s golf tournament at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro,(8) held from August 17 to 20 at the Reserva de Marapendi golf course, in the Barra da Tijuca area.

Among the favorites to win, she started the competition below expectations with 69 strokes (-2 on par) after the first round of the tournament, which placed her in eleventh place. The same scenario repeated itself in the second round, with Ko placing herself in twenty-second place, five strokes away from the medal area.(10) In the last two days, she made a strong recovery to finish the competition in second place and thus win the silver medal.

She also came close to success at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. On August 7, she won the bronze medal at the Kasumigaseki Country Club in Kawagoe. She finished the event with 268 strokes, 16 under par.

After the first two rounds, in which she finished eight strokes behind Nelly Korda, who would later win the gold, she slowed down a bit. In the last two rounds she recovered strongly and finished just one stroke behind the winner. She was tied with the home player Mone Inami, who won the final of the play-offs and won the silver.