Olivia Reeves wins first U.S. gold in weightlifting since 2000

Olivia Reeves won the United States’ first Olympic gold medal in weightlifting in 24 years at the Paris Olympics on Friday.

Reeves lifted 117 kilograms (390 pounds) in the snatch and 145kg (320 pounds) in the clean and jerk for a total of 262kg to beat Mari Leivis Sanchez of Colombia by five kilograms in the women’s 71kg division. Angie Dajomes of Ecuador took the bronze.

Reeves, from Hixson, Tennessee, seemed calm during the competition, but said later she had been feeling the nerves. Reeves said she wanted to treat the Olympics as just another event, “and I got more nervous than all the others, so it didn’t really work.”

During the medal ceremony, Reeves wiped away tears and took deep breaths as the U.S. anthem played.

“I’ve heard the national anthem before. I’ve been on the podium before,” she said. “But this is the Olympics, and to be here, be the Olympic champion hasn’t sunk in yet. I’m not quite sure, but I’m trying to process it.”

Reeves chose higher starting weights than her opponents in both parts of the competition, and completed her first five lifts. Her only failed lift came on a 150kg clean-and-jerk attempt with the gold medal already won.

The U.S. last won an Olympic gold medal in weightlifting in Sydney in 2000, when Tara Nott won the lightest women’s division. That was the first Olympic Games to include women’s weightlifting on the program.

“I hope that this can inspire any young girl who wants to do this. I think to be a representative in this sport means a lot, and I’m proud to have that role,” Reeves said.

Reeves’ gold followed a historic bronze medal for Hampton Morris on Wednesday, the first Olympic medal of any kind for a U.S. men’s weightlifter since the 1984 Los Angeles Games.

Earlier, Karlos Nasar of Bulgaria won weightlifting gold at the Olympics and broke two world records just over a year after a hotel sink fell on him and severed his left Achilles tendon.

Nasar was showering the night before an awards ceremony in May 2023 when he reached for shampoo and pressed down, causing the sink to fall out of the wall and onto him. After undergoing emergency surgery and missing six months, he returned to weightlifting in December and set the clean and jerk world record that he surpassed in this event.

“I believed, and I imagined in my mind to come here after the accident and to win the Olympic title,” Nasar said through an interpreter. “It was very difficult because I could not move for months. But I have very strong power to do this.”

The 21-year-old Nasar, a Paris native, lifted 180 kilograms (397 pounds) in the snatch and a world-record 224 kilograms (494 pounds) in the clean and jerk to win the men’s 89-kilogram division in his Olympic debut with a score of 404 — also a world record.

“This place is very special in my life,” Nasar said. “I was born here, and I was Olympic champion here.”

Asked about an incident involving a lengthy police chase two years ago, Nasar did not want to discuss it but said, “It was not the only incident in the last two years for me. … But clearly I grew up a lot in these two years.”

Yeison López of Colombia got silver and Antonino Pizzolato of Italy took home the bronze.

The event, merging the 81 and 96 kilograms as part of a reduction of weight classes from Tokyo in 2021, was not for the faint of heart, with multiple weightlifters going down in pain during the course of the competition. Karim Abokahla of Egypt grabbed at his right bicep on two consecutive lifts and received medical attention for several minutes for an injury that knocked him out midway through.