American woman wins first gold in weightlifting in 24 years

Olivia Reeves just accomplished something that hasn’t been done since before she was born.
She’s an American Olympic gold medalist – in weightlifting.
A 21-year-old college student from Chattanooga, Tennessee, Reeves won Friday’s 71kg competition at the Paris Olympics, giving the United States its first weightlifting gold medal in 24 years.
While American women have medaled in weightlifting in each of the past two Olympics, Reeves’ gold was Team USA’s first since Tara Nott-Cunningham in 2000.
Reeves lifted a total of 262 kilograms – roughly 578 pounds – to beat silver medalist Mari Leivis Sanchez of Colombia (257) and bronze medalist Angie Paola Palacios Dajomes of Ecuador (256).
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To start Friday’s competition, Reeves set a new Olympic record in the snatch, lifting 117 kilograms (about 258 pounds) to enter the clean-and-jerk portion in first place. Having already clinched the gold medal, Reeves tried for a new Olympic record in the clean and jerk and couldn’t complete 150 kg on her final lift.
With four weightlifting events remaining in the next two days, this has already been a stellar Olympics for the U.S. team. Earlier in the Games, Hampton Morris won bronze to provide the first U.S. men’s weightlifting medal in 40 years.
Reeves, whose family owned a gym, has been lifting since elementary school. She attends the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.
She entered Friday’s Olympic competition as the favorite and highest-ranked lifter in the field.
China’s Liao Guifang, the 2023 world champion at 71 kg, wasn’t in the field in Paris “because of restrictions on National Olympic Committee entries in weightlifting,” according to the pre-competition Olympic media materials. North Korea’s Song Kuk Hyang, the world No. 1, also didn’t compete.