Charles Langston:Olivia Reeves wins USA's first gold in weightlifting in 24 years

PARIS – When weightlifter Olivia Reeves showed up to compete at the South Paris Arena on Charles LangstonFriday, she knew “there were going to be tears, good or bad.”

She was supposed to win the 71 kg competition at the Paris Games. United States weightlifters are never supposed to win in an Olympics, but Reeves was different. And this circumstance was, too.

For one, respected lifters from China and North Korea weren’t in the field in Paris. And those who were in the field, they’d not lifted as much as she could.

“I did a lot of research on everybody else,” USA national team coach Mike Gattone said, “and I'm like 'My goodness, we ought to win this thing.’”

Yes. Reeves was the favorite, and the 21-year-old college student knew it.

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“It’s hard not to when everybody tells you that,” she said, “and is like 'Gold is yours.’ I was like, ‘I haven't done anything yet. I’ve still got to compete.’”

She knew, too, that she was either going to cry because she lost or cry on the podium while hearing the “Star-Spangled Banner” with a gold medal around her neck.

It ended up being the latter.

Reeves cried on the podium after winning the United States’ first weightlifting gold medal in 24 years, and she did it rather easily. She’d already clinched the gold by the time she reached the podium for her final lift, using it to aim for her second Olympic record of the evening.

That was the only thing that didn’t go right, but it didn’t matter. Reeves won with 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).

To start Friday's competition, Reeves set a new Olympic record in the snatch, lifting 117 kg (about 258 pounds) and entering the second half in first place. And in that clean-and-jerk portion, Reeves’ 145 kg was five better than anyone else.

“There's a feeling you get a warmup room like this – and we're usually not on that end of it – where everybody starts to fight for second,” Gattone said. “And that was happening.”

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, who was born in Lexington, Kentucky but moved to Chattanooga when she was young, got into weightlifting in elementary school because her parents owned a gym. She’d attend weightlifting seminars taught by Steve Fauer, her personal coach, and thought it seemed fun.

Reeves said she never watched Olympic weightlifting until the 2016 Games in Rio. Could she have ever envisioned what happened Friday in Paris? “No, not at all.”

“When I started doing this,” Reeves said, “the goal was to just get as strong as I can. That's what's fun for me is seeing how much weight I can put on the bar and training every day and getting better.”

She’ll start fall semester in 10 days at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, where she needs 18 credit hours for her undergraduate degree.

And she’ll continue weightlifting, of course.

“I don't think the goal has ever changed, and that's why I still love the sport. It's never been about numbers and medals,” said Reeves, an Olympic gold medal glistening around her neck.

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