Group USA’s Olivia Reeves wins weightlifting gold at 2024 Olympics – NBC New York

Olivia Reeves lifted her approach into weightlifting historical past on Friday, successful the second Olympic gold medal for Group USA since girls have been allowed to compete in 2000.

Within the 71kg snatch session, Reeves was the final lifter to take the platform with the best quantity. She opened her first try with a conservative 112kg, 9kg shy of her private greatest in competitors, to make sure that she will get on the scoreboard. The 21-year-old breathed an enormous sigh of reduction after she efficiently accomplished the elevate in a single fluid motion.

She then elevated to 115kg in her second try and matched Romanian Elena Loredana Toma’s second try, an Olympic file. For Reeves’ third and closing snatch, she broke that file with a shaky 117kg snatch the place she practically stepped off the again of the platform.

In Toma’s third try, the six-time consecutive European champion did not match Reeves’ 117kg, leaving the Romanian in third. Ecuador’s Angie Palacios Dájomes, the silver medalist on the 2023 World Championship who then bested Reeves’ whole by 2kg, was in second place with a 116kg snatch.

The gold was then all however Reeves’ to lose. No different girl within the 71kg session may match her on the clear & jerk, if she’s capable of register her first try at 140kg.

And he or she did.

It left her with an untouchable whole of 257kg. She would not even should take her second and third makes an attempt to win gold, however she did hit a flawless 150kg for her second try. Her third try at 150kg would have been one other Olympic file however she could not get underneath the jerk.

The primary-time Olympian is now an Olympic champion with the overall of 262kg.

Mari Leivis Sanchez of Colombia took silver on Friday, whereas Palacios Dajomes earned the bronze.

Weightlifters from China usually dominate the game, however resulting from modifications within the qualification course of — every nation was allowed to ship solely three girls and three males to Paris 2024, one for every weight class. The variety of weight courses was additionally diminished from 14 to 10.

China’s Liao Guifang, 2023 World Champion and weightlifting whole world file holder (273kg), would have been Reeve’s greatest menace to gold however she wasn’t chosen to affix the staff.

Reeves’ dad and mom personal a CrossFit fitness center and she or he has been competing since she was younger. She holds a formidable variety of 15 American information in youth, junior and senior classes.

She’s the 2023 World Cup gold medalist within the 71kg and followers are searching for her to quickly break the world file in each the snatch (121kg) and clear & jerk (154kg). Reeves’ private competitors greatest is 120kg for the snatch and 151kg for the clear & jerk.

If these numbers do not imply something to you, simply know that Reeves is extremely robust. She will squat greater than thrice her physique weight, based on the quantity revealed by NPR. That is 224kg, or practically 500 kilos, and she or he’s solely getting stronger.

She has added 26kg to her whole for the reason that first Olympic qualifier, based on USA Weightlifting.

Olympic Weightlifting Schedule

American weightlifter Jourdan Delacruz completed fifth within the girls’s 49kg competitors after failing to rank in 2020.