Competing in an Olympics is considered a great honor for athletes, and for two South Korean veterans this year's Rio de Janeiro Summer Games will hold even greater significance.

Female weightlifter Yoon Jin-hee and male gymnast Yoo Won-chul will both be returning to the Olympic stage after an eight-year absence. Yoon won silver in the 58kg division at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and retired from international competition in 2012. But she started lifting again in late 2014.

Yoo, a 2008 Olympic silver medalist in the men's parallel bars, hasn't left the sport over the past eight years. He helped South Korea to the team bronze medal at the 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games, and as the elder statesman at 31 he will serve as the national team captain in Rio.

Yoon, who will turn 30 on the eve of the Aug. 5-21 Rio Olympics, will have special company on the weightlifting team. Her husband, Won Jeong-sik,  will make his second straight Olympic appearance in the men's 69kg division and chase his first Olympic medal.

"He is an Olympic athlete in his own right, and he's getting ready as an individual Olympian, not as a husband to a medalist,"

Yoon told reporters at the pre-Rio Olympics media day at the National Training Center in Seoul. "After eight years away, it's a great honor to be back on the national team. I hope both of us can come home victorious."

Yoon won silver medals with 94kg in snatch and 119kg in clean and jerk for 213kg total. At last year's world championships in Houston, Yoon could only clear 188kg total -- 83kg in snatch and 105kg in clean and jerk -- but the Korea Weightlifting Federation said she has reached over 200kg in recent training.

Yoo will likely be leading a depleted team missing Yang Hak-seon, the 2012 Olympic vault champion. Yang suffered a torn Achilles' tendon in his right foot during a practice in March and remains doubtful of the final Olympic trials scheduled for later this month.

Yoo said he doesn't want anyone else to go down before Rio.

"My goal is to be a good leader for my younger teammates and to make sure we won't have injuries," he said. "It's a great honor to be going back to the Olympics for the first time in eight years." (Yonhap)