Olivia Reeves claims weightlifting gold at first Olympics, USA's 2nd since 2000

Olivia Reeves lifted her way into weightlifting history on Friday, winning the second Olympic gold medal for Team USA since women were allowed to compete in 2000.

In the 71kg snatch session, Reeves was the last lifter to take the platform with the highest number. She opened her first attempt with a conservative 112kg, 9kg shy of her personal best in competition, to ensure that she gets on the scoreboard. The 21-year-old breathed a huge sigh of relief after she successfully completed the lift in one fluid movement.

She then increased to 115kg in her second attempt and matched Romanian Elena Loredana Toma's second attempt, an Olympic record. For Reeves' third and final snatch, she broke that record with a shaky 117kg snatch where she nearly stepped off the back of the platform.

In Toma's third attempt, the six-time consecutive European champion failed to match Reeves' 117kg, leaving the Romanian in third. Ecuador's Angie Palacios Dájomes, the silver medalist at the 2023 World Championship who then bested Reeves' total by 2kg, was in second place with a 116kg snatch.

The gold was then all but Reeves' to lose. No other woman in the 71kg session could match her on the clean & jerk, if she's able to register her first attempt at 140kg.

And she did.

It left her with an untouchable total of 257kg. She wouldn't even have to take her second and third attempts to win gold, but she did hit a flawless 150kg for her second attempt. Her third attempt at 150kg would have been another Olympic record but she couldn't get under the jerk.

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The first-time Olympian is now an Olympic champion with the total of 262kg.

Mari Leivis Sanchez of Colombia took silver on Friday, while Palacios Dajomes earned the bronze.

WATCH: Women's weightlifting 71kg session

Weightlifters from China typically dominate the sport, but due to changes in the qualification process --- each country was allowed to send only three women and three men to Paris 2024, one for each weight class. The number of weight classes was also reduced from 14 to 10.

China's Liao Guifang, 2023 World Champion and weightlifting total world record holder (273kg), would have been Reeve's biggest threat to gold but she wasn't selected to join the team.

Reeves' parents own a CrossFit gym and she has been competing since she was young. She holds an impressive number of 15 American records in youth, junior and senior categories.

She's the 2023 World Cup gold medalist in the 71kg and fans are looking for her to soon break the world record in both the snatch (121kg) and clean & jerk (154kg). Reeves' personal competition best is 120kg for the snatch and 151kg for the clean & jerk.

If these numbers don't mean anything to you, just know that Reeves is incredibly strong. She can squat more than three times her body weight, according to the number revealed by NPR. That's 224kg, or nearly 500 pounds, and she's only getting stronger.

She has added 26kg to her total since the first Olympic qualifier, according to USA Weightlifting.

Olympic Weightlifting Schedule