Like other sports, the weightlifting world is also highly anticipating the upcoming 2024 Paris Olympics this season. While other athletes have already clinched an Olympic spot, weightlifters are yet to purchase their tickets for Paris. Along the same lines, one of the top contenders on the USA weightlifting plate is seeking a coveted spot. 

The 20-year-old weightlifter is taking the weightlifting world by storm. After a successful win at the 2021 Junior World titles at 71kgs, the USA’s elite lifter enjoyed a breakout last year as a senior. However, this was not enough for her as now she is even hungrier to achieve exceptional results this Olympic year. But, it is not as easy as it may seem at first glance. 

Olivia stands out among the brilliant trio competing all-out

Understandably, the competition for achieving a coveted spot at the Olympics is going to be easy. Interestingly, for USA weightlifting, the competition is more intense than any other sport. The major reason behind this is that only one lifter per class is eligible to represent their nation at the 2024 Paris Olympics. This gives rise to a neck-to-neck rivalry.

The brilliant trio of record setters, Olivia Reeves, World Champion Meredith Alwine, and 2020 Olympic silver medalist Kate Vibert Davis, will compete for the same spot against each other on the USA’s roster. In an exclusive interview with IWF, USA’s director of coaching, Mile Gattone, said, “We’re cursed and we’re blessed.” The description could not have been more apt.

While Reeves is placed at 4th, Vibert stands at the 5th position as per the official qualification leaderboards of IWF, which is the primary metric that determines eligibility for the upcoming Olympic games. Mile added, “We have two in each category fighting it out and you can see what it does. In Cuba (at the last qualifier), Kate did better, and Olivia was crying, and this time, it’s the other way around. They’re pushing the heck out of each other.” However, after Reeves’s recent win in the 71kg Group A, she is much ahead of Vibert on the Road to the 2024 Paris Olympics. 

Olivia Reeves is preparing for the upcoming Olympics

Olivia rose to fame as she clinched her first bronze at the Pan American Championships at 71kgs. Directly after this, she shocked spectators with exceptional performance at 71kg at the Worlds, wherein she set new junior world records for clean and jerk and total. Going with the momentum, Olivia Reeves became unstoppable.

Read More:Road to Paris 2024: USA’s 19-Year-Old Weightlifter Ties World Record, Gets a Step Closer to Olympic Games

At the IWF Grand Prix II in Doha, Qatar, last year, Reeves snatched 115kg, 147kg clean and jerk, and 262kg in total while keeping spectators on the edge of their seats. Interestingly, she broke all their junior world records once again just in an hour. Besides this, she still boasts a stellar resume with a record of being the heaviest non-superheavyweight female to do a 147kg jerk in the history of USA Weightlifting. Now it remains to be seen if Reeves can make it to the highest stage among the trio.

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