Lydia Ko wins gold at 2024 Olympics, now in the LPGA Hall of Fame

There’s something raw about the Olympic podium. Cameras get so close to the athletes that fans a world away can watch as a single tear spills out of the eye, rolls down the cheek and hangs at the bottom of a chin. That was the scene for Lydia Ko, who was overcome with emotion at the weight of the moment. The tears appeared to start before she’d even holed her final birdie putt.

Ko didn’t just win Olympic gold, she played her way into the LPGA Hall of Fame, arguably the toughest Hall in all of sports, accomplishing her ultimate goal.

Eight years ago, when she won silver in Rio, she wanted to cry, but then looked over at Inbee Park, who’d won gold, and didn’t see any tears. How could she cry if Inbee wasn’t crying?

Ah, but it was Ko’s party this time. Let it rain.

“I mean, Cinderella’s glass slippers are see-through and my podium shoes are also see-through,” noted Ko. “I guess that’s something that we have going for us. I feel like I’m part of this fairytale.”

When Ko won the U.S. Women’s Amateur a dozen years ago, she told the press that she wanted to play college golf. Her idols at the time were Michelle Wie and Lexi Thompson, but she didn’t want to follow their career paths.

Two weeks later, Ko won on the LPGA as a 15-year-old and that college golf dream went poof. She was far too talented for that route. Instead, golf fans watched the bespectacled Ko break records and wins hearts as a young teen, making the game look breathlessly easy.

So much life has transpired for Ko since she earned her first LPGA Hall of Fame point as a wunderkind. Now married and perhaps on the verge of retirement, Ko played her way into the LPGA Hall of Fame at age 27 in perhaps the coolest way possible.

While it looked for a while on Saturday at Le Golf National that it would be a runaway victory, the fight for Ko’s 27^th Hall of Fame point went down to the wire on what she called the most difficult Olympic test yet. She won by two over Germany’s Esther Henseleit with a birdie on the 72^nd hole.

Now a three-time Olympic medalist, having won silver in Rio and bronze in Tokyo, Ko’s podium sweep might not ever be repeated in the modern game.

Ko becomes the 35^th player to qualify for the LPGA Hall of Fame and the first since Inbee Park in 2016. Lorena Ochoa got in two years ago after the tour removed the stipulation that required 10 years on tour, but she reached 27 points in 2008.

How tough is it to get into the LPGA Hall? Consider that…