MANAMA, Bahrain — Olivia Reeves won her first world weightlifting title at the IWF World Weightlifting Championships in Bahrain, 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 fourth grade, won the 71kg division at world championships in Manama, Bahrain.
She totaled 267kg (588lb) between the snatch and the clean and jerk, edging Jong Chun-Hui of North Korea (262kg) and Yang Qiuxia of China (261lb).
Reeves, who became the youngest US 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 worlds. North Korea leads the table with eight gold medals through 11 events with China, Thailand and the US each winning one.
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 a US men’s weightlifter since the 1984 Los Angeles Games.
One of the nine sports on offer at the first modern Olympics in 1896, weightlifting has been included on the programme at every Summer Games since then except for three in the early 1900s.
And while only two countries have won more golds (17) or overall medals (46) than the United States, only 10 of those, including Reeves and Morris in Paris, have come since 1968.
But there are hopes about the US programme that Reeves and Morris could be at the fore of a weightlighting resurgence going into the 2028 LA Olympics.
North Korea has taken eight of them, breaking seven senior world records in the process, with the competition ending on 15 December.
A final lift by Ri Chong Song and the numerous world records set by his female teammate Ri Suk helped North Korea maintain their winning streak in Bahrain on the fifth day of competition.
The nation has won all eight medal events since Saturday, with world records set by three Olympic champions.
Seven senior world records were set by the PRK winners. Ri Chong Song won the men’s 81kg in a close contest against 20-year-old Alexey Churkin of Kazakhstan, who completed all six lifts.
In the women’s 64kg, Ri Suk led her country to double, breaking the world record previously held by China’s Deng Wei, now retired and expecting her first child.
Suk, 21, also improved her own clean and jerk record by setting four world records in three minutes in her final two lifts.
Second-placed Rim Un Sim, who was leading at the halfway point, also attempted to break the world record on her last two lifts but failed at 147 kg and 148 kg.
Rim, 27, finished with a total of 116-140-256, 2kg off her personal best, while Ri Suk’s 115-149-264 – six out of six lifts – was a career-best by 4kg.
China’s teenage debutant Li Shuang finished third overall with 107-134-241.
Last year’s winner, Oscar Reyes of Italy, withdrew during the warm-up with a back injury.
All eight lifters in Group A were from Asia, as was the leader of Group B, multiple world record holder Rahmat Erwin of Indonesia.
Ri Chong Song, 27, won gold in the snatch by 1kg from Turkmenistan’s Mukhammadkodir Toshtemirov, who finished third overall with 165-190-355.
Karlos Nasar could cap a spectacularly successful year at the IWF World Weightlifting Championships in Bahrain with more world records and the one major title that has eluded him in his favourite category, the 89kg.
The highlight of 2024 for the Bulgarian star was winning 89kg gold at the Paris Olympics, where he was the only lifter to break world records.
He also triumphed at the IWF World Cup in Thailand and won the European title on home soil.
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