Team USA weightlifter Olivia Reeves is aiming to set a world record and win a medal in her first Olympics.
Melissa Golden
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Melissa Golden
Team USA weightlifter Olivia Reeves is aiming to set a world record and win a medal in her first Olympics.
Melissa Golden
Expectations are high for a member of the U.S. women’s weightlifting team to win a gold medal this year — and Olivia Reeves is at the center of it. Paris will be Levi’s first Olympics appearance, but not her first time on the world stage. Earlier this year, she placed first in the heavyweight category at the IWF World Cup Paris qualifiers in Thailand. She has already broken the American weightlifting record.
Some background – Olympic weightlifters compete in two events:
- In the clean and jerk, the lifter raises (or jerks) the barbell to their chest and then pushes it overhead.
- In the snatch, the lifter grasps the barbell with a wide grip and raises it overhead in one continuous motion.
Each athlete gets three attempts in both weightlifting events. Their heaviest snatch and heaviest clean and jerk are combined, and the lifter with the highest total score wins.
Reeves will compete in the 71kg category. In the last game of the qualifying round, she lifted 118kg in the snatch and 150kg in the clean and jerk, for a total score of 268kg. That’s about 590 pounds.
think about this Earlier this summer, host Juana Summers stopped by the gym to meet with the weightlifter and her longtime coach Steve Fauer as they prepared to head to Paris . As she prepared for the 111kg snatch, she told Summers:
“Eleven kilograms more than that would be a world record… That’s my goal at the Olympics.”
From CrossFit gym to Olympic stage
Unlike the pomp and circumstance of the Paris Olympics, Levis was training for her Olympic debut at a gym in Chattanooga, Tennessee. It’s tucked away in an industrial park and is fairly unremarkable except for a large white banner with Olivia’s name and the Olympic rings hanging over the door.
Olivia, 21, is completing her undergraduate degree at the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga; she also expects to graduate later this year.
While she was growing up, her parents owned a cross-fit gym. Olivia’s mom, Amber, who works there full-time, said Olivia wasn’t too keen on cardio and recalled one memorable workout:
“It involved running. She came back from the run in tears. She didn’t want to do it anymore. Her passion became, you know, lifting weights because she really enjoyed that part of the workout.”
At 13, Olivia’s attention turned to weightlifting and her parents began to see her true potential as an athlete.
“She started winning national competitions in her age group and weight class,” said her father, Jason Reeves.
Amber interjected. Or do we just want to have fun?
Known as a generation of talents
Weightlifting has been a part of the Olympic Games since the first modern games in 1896.
That year, Tara Nott Cunningham won a gold medal in weightlifting, the first and only American woman to do so. Reeves could be next.
“It’s just about getting her ready,” coach Steve Fall told NPR. “I don’t understand why we wouldn’t win a gold medal. We’re knocking on the door of a world record. I mean, why not?”
Coach Steve Fauer discusses Olympic weightlifter Olivia Reeves training at the Tennessee Speed and Strength Center in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
Melissa Golden
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Melissa Golden
Coach Steve Fauer discusses Olympic weightlifter Olivia Reeves training at the Tennessee Speed and Strength Center in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
Melissa Golden
Although Reeves is still early in her career, she is already regarded as one of the greatest powerlifters of our generation.
“It’s unbelievable that she’s had such success at such a young age,” said Cara Heads Slaughter, a member of the 2000 women’s weightlifting team. “She’s poised to be the best in the country. weightlifter.
Reeves, for her part, is focused on her goals and staying consistent.
“I try to practice keeping the whole board parallel. The way I walk to the bar, the way I approach the bar, the way they put the chalk on my hand — it’s all the same.”
but she told think about this Presenter Juana Summers recently said that while she strives to maintain consistency in her training routine, she will have to develop a new training plan as Paris prepares to make her Olympic debut on Friday, August 9.
