Reeves pushed her own Junior records just a bit bit higher in Phuket…beating each China and North Korea in the method.
Last updated on April seventh, 2024
The 2024 IWF World Cup continues to deliver on its promise of being a spectacular and star-studded weightlifting competition. The Cup, which runs from Mar. 31 to Apr. 11 in Phuket, Thailand, is the last qualifier event before the Paris Olympics begin this August.
Team USA’s Olivia Reeves was the most recent athlete to make headlines with a personal-record-setting performance. On Sunday, Apr. 7, throughout the Women’s 71-kilogram Group A event, Reeves won gold medals across the board with a 118-kilogram snatch (260.1 kilos), a 150-kilogram clean & jerk (330.6 kilos), and a 268-kilogram Total, or 590.8 kilos.
Reeves was joined by fellow Team USA weightlifter and 2021 World Champion Meredith Alwine, who finished fifteenth on the Cup this 12 months.
Olivia Reeves (71KG) | 2024 IWF World Cup
At the time of this competition, Reeves was 20 years of age. However, attributable to the International Weightlifting Federation’s (IWF) regulations, she isn’t any longer considered a Junior athlete because she turns 21 this calendar 12 months.
When the snatch portion of the competition had wrapped, 20-year-old Reeves found herself comfortably within the lead by a three-kilogram margin against each Liao Guifang (CHN) and Song Kuk-Hyang (PRK), two of the 71-kilogram Senior world record holders.
Neither Kuk-Hyang nor Guifang could clean & jerk enough weight to surpass Reeves, despite each women attempting 154 kilograms multiple times for the lead. This is the first time in history that an American female weightlifter has beaten each China and North Koreathe world’s two most dominant weightlifting teams, by such a major margin.
Reeves’ Soaring Star
Despite her rapid rise to prominence inside American weightlifting, Reeves’ competitive profession throughout the IWF actually dates back to 2019 with a silver-medal finish on the Youth World Championships that 12 months.
Reeves began competing in Senior-level international weightlifting competitions in 2022, while still a Junior athlete herself. She competed internationally five times in 2023, all on the Senior level, and made it to the rostrum each time:
Regardless of how she performed at this event, Reeves had already booked her ticket to Paris as she sat comfortably in second place on the IWF’s qualification rating leaderboards. She stays in second place but is now considered a viable contender for the Olympic gold medal within the 71s in Paris.
The multi-Junior-world-record-holder is predicted to hitch 2020 Olympian Jourdan Delacruz (49KG) and 2023 World Championships runner-up Mary Theisen-Lappen because the trio of female weightlifters representing the United States on the Olympic stage in Paris this summer.
