Tara Nott-Cunningham is the only woman from the USA who has had the honor of hanging an Olympic gold medal around her neck in weightlifting. However, in the 24 years that have since passed, no one has come close to winning another Olympic medal. That might change with 71 kg World Cup winner Olivia Reeves. Reeves has revived Team USA’s hopes after a stellar 18 months of competition.

“It’s an incredible privilege,” Reeves said on the opportunity to represent her nation on the Olympic stage. At the 2023 World Championships, the U.S. Olympic weightlifter finished in third place behind China’s Liao Guifang and Ecuador’s Angie Palacios, she faced them again in Paris. However, surprisingly winning the gold medal isn’t the World Cup winner’s main focus.

“I have personal goals regardless of the outcome,” Olivia Reeves told BarBend ahead of her biggest challenge yet. However, if the 21-year-old can match these personal goals, then she’ll earn more than Olympic gold. “My goal at the Olympics is to hit a senior world record in the snatch,” Reeves told NPR on August 6.

Doing so would not only end a 24-year medal drought but also place the USA in the weightlifting record books. Considering the 21-year-old’s track record, it’s easy to see why she has set such a lofty goal for the Olympics. It has only been two years since she burst onto the senior weightlifting scene, yet more importantly, she held all the world records in her weight class as a junior.

Olivia Reeves has already snatched 120 kg, coming agonizingly close to matching her Olympic rival Angie Palacios’s 121 kg senior record. Even her coach is confident about Reeves making history. “I don’t see why we aren’t going to win the gold medal,” said Steve Fauer. However, the Junior World Champion didn’t start her weightlifting journey with Olympic dreams.

The amusing reason why Olivia Reeves picked up weightlifting

Like many other world-class weightlifters, the first-time Olympian’s road to Olympic weightlifting started with fitness. However, unlike her teammate Jourdan Delacruz, the 71 kg lifter didn’t fall in love with the sport in a CrossFit gym. While Reeves’s parents own a CrossFit gym, “I decided I didn’t like running,” the World Championships bronze medalist told USA Weightlifting.

Ironically, running to maintain cardiovascular fitness for weightlifting later became one of her ‘favorite parts’ of the sport. However, what Olivia Reeves initially started as a casual fitness activity has brought her to the grandest stage in the world. Now, the 21-year-old is serious about becoming the greatest 71 kg female Olympic weightlifter at the Paris Olympics. Will she achieve her lofty goal? We’ll find out in less than 12 hours.