Olivia Reeves becomes first US lifter to pair world title with Olympic gold in 66 years

Olivia Reeves won her first world weightlifting title on Wednesday, four months after winning the United States’ first Olympic gold medal in weightlifting in 24 years.

The 21-year-old from Chattanooga, who started lifting weights at the CrossFit gym her mother owned when she was in the fourth grade, won the 71kg division at the world championships in Manama, Bahrain, on Wednesday. She weighed a total of 267 kg (588 lb) between the snatch and the clean and jerk, leaving Jong Chun-Hui of North Korea (262 kg) and Yang Qiuxia of China (261 lb).

Reeves, who became the youngest American lifter to win Olympic gold in 68 years, became the first American lifter to win Olympic and world titles since Ike Berger did the double in 1958, according to NBC.

It was the first medal for the United States at this year’s world championships. North Korea tops the rankings with eight gold medals in 11 events, with China, Thailand and the US winning one each.

Reeves’ gold at the Paris Olympics followed the historic bronze medal for 20-year-old Hampton Morris, the first Olympic medal of any kind for an American men’s weightlifter since the 1984 Games in Los Angeles.

Weightlifting, one of nine sports offered at the first modern Olympic Games in 1896, has been on the program of every Summer Games since, except three at the turn of the 20th century. And while only two countries have won more gold medals (17) or overall medals (46) than the United States, only 10 of those, including Reeves and Morris in Paris, have been won since 1968.

But there is hope about the US program that Reeves and Morris can spearhead a resurgence in weight lifting at the 2028 Olympics in LA.