Elizabeth Cuen came close to missing the podium in the 58kg weightlifting event at the South American Youth Games in Panama, but found in her third snatch attempt the turning point that completely changed her competition. After two failed lifts at 77kg, the Venezuelan got the bar up at the moment of greatest pressure and opened the way to a gold medal that had seemed to be slipping away.

In an exclusive interview with SportsIn, Cuen looked back on that decisive moment and explained how she moved from tension to victory in her international debut. Her win was also part of Venezuela’s dominance in weightlifting at the Games, where the delegation claimed ten medals, six of them gold, with titles for Arianye Echandia, Franlys Gutiérrez, Lidysmar Aparicio, Esmeralda Herrera, Cuen herself and David Linares.

A snatch on the edge and a decisive third attempt

Before her event, Venezuela had already celebrated David Linares’ gold in the 65kg category and Arianye Echandia’s in the 53kg, while Osneiber Pirona had added a bronze in the 71kg. Cuen stepped onto the platform with the feeling that she did not want to break that sequence of podium finishes. “This was new for me. Representing Venezuela, I felt a bit of pressure, not from the other competitors, but from myself. Because my other teammates had won gold, so I had to go for the same. I did it, I changed the script, I had to wake up,” she said.

The emotional burden grew when she failed twice at 77kg in the snatch and found herself on the verge of an early exit from the medal race. At that point, she had to stop the anxiety and rebuild herself in the middle of competition. “I had to calm down, enjoy the competition and trust myself a bit more,” explained the athlete, who ended the moment in tears after making that third attempt that kept her whole event alive.

The roots of a champion in Zulia

Cuen is from Zulia, in Venezuela, and her path into sport was shaped by her father. In the interview with SportsIn, she explained that the original push came from home, not only as an invitation to compete, but also as a way of projecting onto her a path that her family had not been able to complete themselves. “My dad always wanted to be an athlete. He didn’t achieve it, but he saw in me a daughter who could become a great athlete. He guided me into sport, not into weightlifting, but I could choose, and I chose weightlifting because it matches my character, I’m very strong. My dad has helped me a lot and I’m proud of myself too,” she said.

That background helps explain why weightlifting suited the way she competes. More than a casual choice, it appears in her account as a discipline tied to her personality, to the strength she identifies in herself and to the family support that sustained her from the start. In Panama, that earlier story was compressed into an event that forced her to hold on just when she seemed to be running out of room.

From the edge of the podium to gold in a competition that turned around

For much of the contest, Colombia’s Laura Rivas, Ecuador’s Marely Lara and Brazil’s Laura Pereira de Souza appeared to be moving more securely towards the podium, while concern was growing on the Venezuelan side. But Cuen’s successful snatch attempt changed the script. From there, the Venezuelan put together three successful clean and jerk lifts and climbed back to finish the competition with a total of 176kg, divided into 77kg in the snatch and 99kg in the clean and jerk.

“It was something where maybe they got overconfident, but I went all in, I gave everything and I’m going to keep giving everything,” she said. The victory also had an effect on her that went beyond the result.“I proved a lot of people wrong, even myself, because I’m shocked. This competition was unbelievably good,” said the lifter from Zulia, who acknowledged that before arriving in Panama there had not been many expectations around her chances.

Weightlifting receives essential support in Venezuela

In the final part of the interview, Cuen also linked Venezuela’s success in weightlifting to the support received from the country’s sports authorities and technical structure. “The sports minister has worked enormously with us, we’ve done a lot of work with the coaches, all those people who support us back in Venezuela. Everything has improved so much in weightlifting and in other sports too, but I feel we have worked to win this and many more,” she said.

Her gold in Panama was therefore tied to a double reading: that of a competition she rescued at the last moment, and that of a broader process of growth within Venezuelan weightlifting. After turning a third attempt into the starting point of her victory, Cuen is already setting her next target on preparation for the World Weightlifting Championships.