Speaker 1: Welcome to Good Game with Sarah Spain, where we're thanking
Speaker 1: the weather gods for clearing the skies and ending the
Speaker 1: rain just in time for Mountjoy to play three straight
Speaker 1: perfect cloud free.
Speaker 2: Nights in Denver.
Speaker 1: It's Monday, August seventeenth, and on today's show, weightlifting Olympic
Speaker 1: champion Olivia Reeves joins the show. We talk about how
Speaker 1: her CrossFit parents got her into the sport, the difference
Speaker 1: between powerlifting, bodybuilding and weightlifting, when she knew she had talent,
Speaker 1: the obstacles she faced en route to Olympic glory, and
Speaker 1: what her plans are for LA twenty twenty eight and beyond.
Speaker 1: Plus crowns all around, an iconic wind streak is no more,
Speaker 1: and a reminder to always find your seat in time
Speaker 1: for kickoff. It's all coming up right after this Welcome
Speaker 1: back slices. Here's what you need to know today. Lots
Speaker 1: of championships and major competitions over the weekends, starting with lacrosse.
Speaker 1: The Maryland Charm won the twenty twenty six Women's Lcross
Speaker 1: League Championship on Saturday, beating the California Palms sixteen thirteen.
Speaker 1: The Charms Sydney Black got MVP honors. The former Loyalist
Speaker 1: standout had four goals and an assist in the game,
Speaker 1: held at Subru Park just outside of Philadelphia. The Charms
Speaker 1: Alex Holman also had an outstanding game. After registering zero
Speaker 1: goals during the regular season, she managed to pull out
Speaker 1: a hat trick in the title game. Clutch to Flag
Speaker 1: Football Canada women's national team won the Flag Football World
Speaker 1: Championships in Duseldorf, Germany, on Sunday, beating Team USA twenty
Speaker 1: seven to twenty in the finals. The US, who were
Speaker 1: the reigning champs, looked like they were gaining momentum in
Speaker 1: the final few minutes of the game, but they ran
Speaker 1: out of time and couldn't catch up to Canada's lead.
Speaker 1: With the win, Canada gets the first earned spot in
Speaker 1: the sport at LA twenty twenty eight. The US has
Speaker 1: already qualified as hosts of the games, the final Olympic.
Speaker 2: Spot handed out at the tournament. Germany made it a
Speaker 2: North American sweep.
Speaker 1: Mexico bested Great Britain twenty nineteen to punch their ticket
Speaker 1: to LA as well. The final three national teams to
Speaker 1: qualify will be determined in June of twenty twenty eight,
Speaker 1: just about one month before the Olympic tournament begins, to
Speaker 1: the pool, where a few results caught our attention at
Speaker 1: the Pan Pacific Championships in Irvine, California. First, of all, guys,
Speaker 1: this is crazy TMUSA Olympic champion Kate Douglas broke the
Speaker 1: fifty meter freestyle world record not once, but twice on Saturday.
Speaker 2: First, she won her prelim.
Speaker 1: Heat and twenty three point forty nine seconds world record.
Speaker 1: Then mere hours later she swam even faster twenty three
Speaker 1: point nineteen to win the finals. We'll see how long
Speaker 1: this record stands. Last time Douglas broke the fifty free
Speaker 1: record in June, fellow US star Gretchen Walsh beat it
Speaker 1: again just nine days later. Always good to have competition
Speaker 1: to keep your pushing your limits. By the way, the
Speaker 1: fifty free isn't the only event in which Douglas made history.
Speaker 1: The five time Olympic medalist was also on the mixed
Speaker 1: four by one hundred meter medley relay that set a
Speaker 1: new world record on Wednesday. More swimming eight hundred meter
Speaker 1: freestyle legend Katie Ldecki stunned the crowd over the weekend
Speaker 1: by for the first time in an international meet, losing
Speaker 1: her signature event all thanks to Lonnie Pallister of Australia,
Speaker 1: who touched over a second ahead of her. Pallister was
Speaker 1: underworld record pace for much of the eight hundred meter
Speaker 1: freestyle race, eventually fading slightly but still getting to the
Speaker 1: wall in eight minutes and six seconds, besting Ladeki's Pan
Speaker 1: Pacific Championships record from twenty eighteen. Now this is the
Speaker 1: same Aussie swimmer who finished just a couple seconds behind
Speaker 1: Ladeki in the fifteen hundred last week. That was Ladeki's
Speaker 1: smallest margin of victory in the event at an international
Speaker 1: competition since twenty thirteen. So Lonnie Pallister is definitely walking
Speaker 1: away from the biggest swim meet of the year, having
Speaker 1: made her name known ahead of the twenty twenty eight Games.
Speaker 1: To soccer, Cameroon won the Women's Africa Cup of Nations
Speaker 1: on Sunday, defeating Malawi three nil. It marks Cameron's first
Speaker 1: ever WAFT Coon title after the team previously made the
Speaker 1: final of the tournament three times. Cameroon's Monique Nagaka was
Speaker 1: named Player of the tournament, and you're about to see
Speaker 1: a lot more of her last month, The Washington's Beard
Speaker 1: announced that the team had signed the twenty one year old,
Speaker 1: and now that Lafcon is over, she's headed to d
Speaker 1: C to make HERSL debut.
Speaker 2: More Soccer.
Speaker 1: If you weren't in your seat at Sports Illustrated Stadium
Speaker 1: in time, you might have missed the first goal of
Speaker 1: Current Gotham FC on Friday Kansas City Ford. Amelia White
Speaker 1: made quick work of things, scoring for the Current just
Speaker 1: twenty two seconds into the game. Thanks to an assist
Speaker 1: from Kroy Bethune, White was able to get the ball
Speaker 1: past Gotham goalie and Katrin Berger and into the back
Speaker 1: of the net, tying the NWSL record for fastest goal
Speaker 1: in league history. It ended up being the only goal
Speaker 1: the Current could muster, though, as goals from Midge Purs
Speaker 1: and Sam Kerr gave got them a two to one
Speaker 1: comeback win. With her tally, Kerr became the first player
Speaker 1: in NWSL history to reach eighty regular season goals, and
Speaker 1: her thirty one regular season goals for Gotham FC set
Speaker 1: a new club record. Now, twenty eight of those tallies
Speaker 1: came when the team was still sky Blue. The Australian
Speaker 1: striker has added three goals since rejoining the club in
Speaker 1: the middle of this season two hoops where the Minnesota
Speaker 1: Links beat the Las Vegas Aces ninety two eighty seven
Speaker 1: on Saturday, marking their second win.
Speaker 2: In a week over the reigning league champions.
Speaker 1: The Links via Miles had twenty three to lead them,
Speaker 1: while the FISA Collier added nineteen asstar Asia Wilson had
Speaker 1: thirty two points in her team's losing effort, which dropped
Speaker 1: the Aces to third place in the league's standings. Golden
Speaker 1: State Balkyries sit in second, and the Links remain in first.
Speaker 1: The Aces did clinch a playoff spot on Thursday when
Speaker 1: they beat the Washington Mystics, though marking their eighth straight
Speaker 1: postseason birth. The Links are the only other team to
Speaker 1: secure their spot in the playoffs at this time. More
Speaker 1: w last week, New York Liberty head coach Chris de
Speaker 1: Marco announced that Satu Sabli will be taking time away
Speaker 1: from the team as she continues to deal with the
Speaker 1: lingering effects of a concussion. Sabli hasn't played since suffering
Speaker 1: the head injury against the Aces on June twenty third.
Speaker 1: It was her second concussion in the past year. She's
Speaker 1: been available to play in just thirteen games for the
Speaker 1: Liberty this season since joining the team in the off season.
Speaker 1: No word yet on an estimated return or on her
Speaker 1: availability for her German national team in next month's FEBA
Speaker 1: World Cup. More w and a celebration fit for a legend,
Speaker 1: go check out the Phoenix Mercury Socials for all the
Speaker 1: coverage of the jersey retis retirement for the legendary Diana Tarassi.
Speaker 1: In the days leading up to her Ring of Honor ceremony,
Speaker 1: the team unveiled a street named after her, a really
Speaker 1: spectacular interactive mural, a sit down interview with her former teammate,
Speaker 1: now wife and fellow Ring of Honor legend Penny Taylor,
Speaker 1: and so much more So cool to see DT get
Speaker 1: her flowers. We'll link to the Mercury account in the
Speaker 1: show notes. There's just one W game on the schedule tonight.
Speaker 1: The Dallas Wings play the Golden State Valkyries at ten pm.
Speaker 1: Eastern Wings are coming off a loss to the Indiana
Speaker 1: Fever on Friday. That's a former number one picks Caitlin
Speaker 1: Clark and Paige Becker's dueling.
Speaker 2: Twenty nine apiece.
Speaker 1: At one point they traded buckets for thirteen straight points.
Speaker 2: Hope you caught some of that one.
Speaker 1: Meantime, The Fever followed up that Friday win with a
Speaker 1: ninety five ninety one OT victory over the Atlanta Dream
Speaker 1: on Sunday.
Speaker 2: Despite thirty two.
Speaker 1: Points from Malley Shagray and the loss, Kelsey Mitchell likely
Speaker 1: happy about that extra session, she managed to get to
Speaker 1: twenty points in OT and extend her WNBA record to
Speaker 1: nineteen straight games with twenty or more points. To Tennis,
Speaker 1: Williams continues her comeback tour today, teaming up with sister
Speaker 1: Venus to play doubles at the Cincinnati Open.
Speaker 2: Venus is coming off a loss.
Speaker 1: On Friday, falling in straight sets in the first round
Speaker 1: of the Open singles tournament to Emilian Orongo. The older
Speaker 1: William's sister had received a wildcard entry to the singles event.
Speaker 1: She hasn't won a singles match since July of last year. Today,
Speaker 1: the sisters will play a doubles team made up of
Speaker 1: US pro Peyton Stearns and Ukrainian Marta Costuk, who recently
Speaker 1: made headlines for winning her first WTA one thousand title
Speaker 1: at the Madrid Open back in May.
Speaker 2: You can watch on the Tennis.
Speaker 1: Channel or the Tennis Channel app finally to baseball, where
Speaker 1: Kelsey Whitmore is on a hell of a run with
Speaker 1: her San Francisco fire Bells. On Wednesday, the friend of
Speaker 1: the show recorded the first three home run game in
Speaker 1: WPBL history to beat the Los Angeles Queens eight to two.
Speaker 1: Then on Friday, Whitmore had two more homers, then on
Speaker 1: Saturday another one, putting Whitmore in a tie for most
Speaker 1: home runs this season with New York's Dene Benitas Danita Benita,
Speaker 1: who coincidentally Whitmore and her San Francisco squad will face
Speaker 1: for their next game on Wednesday.
Speaker 2: By the way, shouts to slice.
Speaker 1: Marguerite Maganaute, who wrote that she also calls her Danita Benita.
Speaker 1: So I am not alone, she said when she was
Speaker 1: listening to the episode from opening Days. She said it
Speaker 1: in her head right before I said it, and she
Speaker 1: laughed to herself and has since been so confused that
Speaker 1: she had to look up what her real name is.
Speaker 1: So thank you, Marguerite, Danita Benita. Forever we got to
Speaker 1: take a break. When we come back, we head to
Speaker 1: the gym with Olivia Reeves joining us. Now she's an
Speaker 1: Olympic gold medalist in Team USA weightlifter at the twenty
Speaker 1: twenty four Paris Game. She became the first American weightlifter
Speaker 1: to win Olympic gold in twenty four years and the
Speaker 1: youngest American Olympic gold medalist in weightlifting in sixty eight years.
Speaker 1: Oh and she also set an Olympic record along the way.
Speaker 1: She also won the World Weightlifting Championships later that year,
Speaker 1: becoming the first US lifter in sixty six years to hold.
Speaker 2: Both the world title and an Olympic gold in the
Speaker 2: same year.
Speaker 1: And then she repeated as World weightlifting champ in twenty
Speaker 1: twenty five as well. She'll try to make it a
Speaker 1: three peet this fall. A Chattanooga, Tennessee native, she got
Speaker 1: her degree in sociology and is now a graduate student
Speaker 1: in the UT Chattanooga Master of Public Health program studying
Speaker 1: chronic disease prevention and control. She's a pity mom to
Speaker 1: miss Amber, and she's ice skated at Rockefeller Center and
Speaker 1: fed gushers to a raccoon.
Speaker 2: It's Olivia Reeves.
Speaker 3: Hi, Olivia, my goodness, you did your research.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 1: Mostly jealous of the raccoon that got the gushers. What
Speaker 1: country were you in for that that looked like you
Speaker 1: were in a foreign country.
Speaker 3: I was in Panama. They were pretty scary looking, very
Speaker 3: skinny for raccoons, the skinniest skinniest I've seen, and.
Speaker 2: Not fuzzy, not fuzzy. They weren't furrey.
Speaker 3: I'm not really sure what raccoons are getting into, but yeah,
Speaker 3: that was a lot of fun.
Speaker 1: I'm a huge raccoon fan, and I would like to
Speaker 1: make one a pet, even though all best judgment advises
Speaker 1: me against that. So very jealous of that. I want
Speaker 1: to get back to when you were a kid and
Speaker 1: go all the way back to when you first started lifting,
Speaker 1: got you into it.
Speaker 3: My parents owned a CrossFit gym from twenty twelve to
Speaker 3: twenty nineteen, and I started Olympic weightlifting specifically in twenty fifteen.
Speaker 3: My coach, who is still my coach, would come in
Speaker 3: and do like USAW level ones, do seminars for crossfitters
Speaker 3: who wanted to do strength training, and through that, as
Speaker 3: long as I've had all my homework done and I
Speaker 3: packed an extra snack, my mom was like, Okay, you
Speaker 3: can participate, and then she was like, actually you could
Speaker 3: do this. You could train at Steve's gym and just
Speaker 3: make this your sport if you didn't want to do
Speaker 3: CrossFit or kind of you know, just to add something
Speaker 3: else if you wanted to. After I went to my
Speaker 3: first USA Weightlifting Nationals and a training camp at the OTC,
Speaker 3: I decided that this was my sport. Not that I
Speaker 3: found that I was super good at it yet, but
Speaker 3: just this is something I wanted to do and that
Speaker 3: I enjoyed.
Speaker 1: Those years sound very recent, but it's just that you're
Speaker 1: very young. You're only twenty three, so they're not that
Speaker 1: recent in the timeline of your life.
Speaker 2: You actually were in fourth grade when you.
Speaker 1: Started lifting at your parents gym. Did you play other sports?
Speaker 1: Did you like other sports?
Speaker 3: I did my fair share of soccer, track, cross country, basketball, ballet,
Speaker 3: horseback riding. Like I tried quite a bit. I realized later,
Speaker 3: because I was still friends with people from elementary school that,
Speaker 3: like I thought it was okay at the sport or
Speaker 3: at basketball, but then I realized that they were just
Speaker 3: trying to give everybody a chance with the ball. Actually,
Speaker 3: it's not that that was anything to speak of with
Speaker 3: my knee high socks. But I enjoyed it, and I
Speaker 3: found team sports fun and my parents definitely wished I
Speaker 3: did more team sports. Like at that age, the deal
Speaker 3: kind of was like you're in school and you have
Speaker 3: to have an extra curricular, whether that's you know, band
Speaker 3: or theater or a sport. You had to had something
Speaker 3: else to learn to balance, and it just so happened
Speaker 3: for me and my sisters to be sports.
Speaker 1: So I have a lot of friends that do CrossFit,
Speaker 1: and I feel like the range of gyms can go
Speaker 1: from people who really know what they're doing, which I imagine
Speaker 1: the case where your parents Jim had actual coaches and
Speaker 1: trainers that are experts in weightlifting, and then they're the
Speaker 1: ones where they don't tell people like, hey, your niece
Speaker 1: shouldn't be pasture toes when you're squatting and things like that.
Speaker 1: So it's awesome and validating for the CrossFit world that
Speaker 1: you got your start in one of those gyms. How
Speaker 1: did your coach start coaching there and was the intent
Speaker 1: to do that as a side hustle with a focus
Speaker 1: on real competitive weightlifting or did you sort of help
Speaker 1: inspire him to move over into that side.
Speaker 3: He's been a coach longer than I've been alive. He
Speaker 3: could forget more than I know about weightlifting. Like Steve Fouer,
Speaker 3: he's been in the Chattanooga area and had his own
Speaker 3: gym and been coaching at the college high school D
Speaker 3: one level, Like that's kind of been his deal. He
Speaker 3: was only coming in to supplement and do every once
Speaker 3: in a while something for the CrossFit crowd. It's very
Speaker 3: lucky that I found him and that our coach and
Speaker 3: fleet relationship has gone through now going on eleven years
Speaker 3: in Chattanooga, Tennessee, for the sport of Olympic weightlifting. It's
Speaker 3: like a lot of things had to go right for
Speaker 3: a long time for that to work out well.
Speaker 1: And I also wonder, did you at some point realize
Speaker 1: you had something special and you should seriously pursue this
Speaker 1: or do you think that Steve's ability to see that
Speaker 1: in you was a big deciding factor there.
Speaker 3: People do ask him that, like Olivia walked in the gym,
Speaker 3: did you just know? And He's like, no, I had
Speaker 3: no clue, first of all. Second of all, he asked,
Speaker 3: he goes, do you want any help or do you
Speaker 3: want like pointers? And I go no, I think I'm good,
Speaker 3: And he was like all right then, so oh my god,
Speaker 3: cause at the time I didn't understand I knew how
Speaker 3: to snatch and I knew how to clean a jerk,
Speaker 3: and I was like, boom, I've got it. I don't
Speaker 3: need any help. I could do it like ground overhead,
Speaker 3: like a very crossfitter. Mentality doesn't have to be perfect,
Speaker 3: it just has to get it done. And to a
Speaker 3: lot of years before I realized, okay, I'm not didn't
Speaker 3: crosswit anymore. This is Olympic weightlifting. In order and be
Speaker 3: good at this, you kind of have to be a
Speaker 3: perfectionist and you know, have help and be a coachable athlete.
Speaker 3: And that took a long time for me to realize.
Speaker 3: And I mean, he was just happy to have people
Speaker 3: in the gym, regardless of your ability level, and he's
Speaker 3: happy to take the time to coach and work with you.
Speaker 3: I mean, it just happened that I enjoyed it and
Speaker 3: I wanted to compete, and he's like, awesome, okay.
Speaker 2: And you were very very good at it.
Speaker 1: I will say as a precocious young person myself, I
Speaker 1: think also kids tend not to really understand or grasp
Speaker 1: how successful adults are or what it means when a
Speaker 1: successful adult wants to invest time in you.
Speaker 2: Because you don't know any different.
Speaker 1: You're like, oh, that's cool, and then later in your
Speaker 1: life like, holy shit, this guy's like really great at
Speaker 1: this and spending some time with me to help me
Speaker 1: be great too. So I think a lot of us
Speaker 1: that have sports backgrounds no you know, AAU basketball or
Speaker 1: travel soccer, or Junior Olympics for track, there's a lot
Speaker 1: of outlets to kind of pursue an interest in the sport.
Speaker 1: When you find that you're at a specific level outside
Speaker 1: of just your regular school competitions, what are the opportunities
Speaker 1: as a young person for competitive weightlifting? Where do you
Speaker 1: go if you realize you want to start the track
Speaker 1: towards something like in Olympics. That's what makes it a
Speaker 1: little tough about Olympic weightlifting is people automatically.
Speaker 3: First right off the bat, don't quite understand the difference
Speaker 3: between powerlifting, bodybuilding and weightlifting, and they think it's all
Speaker 3: kind of the same thing. So a good part of
Speaker 3: that is just education. And if you're in kind of
Speaker 3: the school age, then your source is your strength coach
Speaker 3: and they might not even know the Olympic lifts and
Speaker 3: they might still be having absolutely everybody do a power clean.
Speaker 3: There are no squats to full depth. There is no
Speaker 3: full range of motion. So a lot of that starts
Speaker 3: with just you have to find somebody that is in
Speaker 3: a way knows anything about the Olympic lifts, which are
Speaker 3: the snatch and the clean and jerk. Powerlifting is the squat,
Speaker 3: benched deadlift, and bodybuilding is a physique competition, not the same.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 1: So for the two Olympic lifts, pardon my ignorance, but
Speaker 1: they're separate events, the snatch and the clean.
Speaker 3: Yes, but it's all one competition. So you the competition,
Speaker 3: you weigh in, you have two hours. Competition starts, you
Speaker 3: do the snatch, you do the clean and jerk, competition ends,
Speaker 3: that weight class ends.
Speaker 2: Got it? And they both count?
Speaker 3: Yes, you add them together and that's your total. So
Speaker 3: you can technically have like you like a world championship.
Speaker 3: You walk away with three gold medals, a snatch, a
Speaker 3: clean and jerk in a total.
Speaker 1: Okay, And can you win any of those medals individually
Speaker 1: or they all go together individually?
Speaker 2: Yes? Ah, okay, So you can win the snatch but
Speaker 2: not the others.
Speaker 1: You can also win the clean and jerk but not
Speaker 1: the other or you can win okay, Yeah.
Speaker 3: There's a combination of the three. The only exception is
Speaker 3: a Games event, so it gets a little a Games event,
Speaker 3: there are no individual lift medals, it's only total. So
Speaker 3: the Olympics I walked away with one gold medal versus
Speaker 3: a World Championship walked away with three.
Speaker 2: Okay, a lot of medals.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm not quite sure who made the role. I
Speaker 3: wish it was three, could have been.
Speaker 1: But you know, so, what was your first big win
Speaker 1: where it was like, Okay, I'm on track. I need
Speaker 1: to start looking to compete against the most elite people
Speaker 1: in the world.
Speaker 3: Probably my twenty twenty one Junior World Championship. That was
Speaker 3: my first big international in terms of I have fly
Speaker 3: with the team, getting to do have an international competition experience,
Speaker 3: and I ended I had really no expectation for myself.
Speaker 3: I hadn't competed in a while because that was coming
Speaker 3: out of COVID, and it was just kind of like,
Speaker 3: I'm here to compete. This is super cool. I don't
Speaker 3: know what I can do. And then I ended up
Speaker 3: winning and I was like, wow, okay, not everybody's doing
Speaker 3: this all right then. So it was after that and
Speaker 3: then a couple more because Olympic qualifying for twenty twenty
Speaker 3: four started into twenty twenty two, so it was kind
Speaker 3: of within that year I was like competing a lot more,
Speaker 3: qualifying and making senior teams as a your athlete, where
Speaker 3: I started prioritizing lifting a little bit more in my life.
Speaker 3: I had graduated high school in twenty twenty one and
Speaker 3: originally went to the University of Alabama at Birmingham to
Speaker 3: pursue an undergraduate degree in public health, and I spent
Speaker 3: a year there, and in that time I had about
Speaker 3: four competitions, and I was training remotely, so my coach
Speaker 3: was programming me, but he's not in person, and I
Speaker 3: was kind of training by myself, and it was just
Speaker 3: not the best environment for me to set myself up
Speaker 3: to a twenty twenty four potential Olympic hopeful. So that's
Speaker 3: those years are kind of when I started to realize
Speaker 3: how far this could take me, how good I could get,
Speaker 3: and also just the natural progression of being an athlete
Speaker 3: and not just it being a hobby, but the sport
Speaker 3: that I enjoy, and this could be a career for
Speaker 3: a couple of years.
Speaker 1: How did your friends in high school react to you
Speaker 1: pursuing weightlifting.
Speaker 3: They thought it was cool cool for one of my
Speaker 3: junior Worlds, they had to send off. Everybody made posters
Speaker 3: and stuff. I've always been super supported, and I love
Speaker 3: the sport of weightlifting. I love that people are interested.
Speaker 3: Not to say that got any of them into the
Speaker 3: gym to try it with me, not at all. Still
Speaker 3: I don't think I have, but there's a lot of
Speaker 3: respect for what I'm doing in my sport and balancing
Speaker 3: it all.
Speaker 1: I feel like whenever I want to get my friends
Speaker 1: to do stuff that they're not super jazzed about, I
Speaker 1: just turn it into a birthday party and then they're
Speaker 1: forced to on behalf of celebrating me. So I think
Speaker 1: your next birthday party needs to just be in the
Speaker 1: gym where everybody has to learn.
Speaker 2: How to do like a clean and jerk.
Speaker 3: That is the most Olivia Reeves thing I've heard.
Speaker 1: Perfect.
Speaker 3: I haven't done that yet. A weightlifting theme birthday.
Speaker 1: You could just do Olympic themed where there could be
Speaker 1: a couple other events, but the real point is to
Speaker 1: get everyone to have to do like a clean injurney.
Speaker 1: Yeah wow, okay, so take us through a lift. I
Speaker 1: want to know, are you repeating cues right before relating
Speaker 1: to your arms, your knees, your breath. Are you relying
Speaker 1: on just muscle memory and clearing your brain right before?
Speaker 1: Like what are you thinking as you're about to make
Speaker 1: an attempt?
Speaker 3: If I'm like leading up to competition, say it's a
Speaker 3: competition lift, I do a lot of visualization to see
Speaker 3: like the weight on the bar, the seconds on the clock,
Speaker 3: things like that to make it feel like I've already
Speaker 3: made the lift. I already know the outcome. I just
Speaker 3: have to go through the process. And the process is
Speaker 3: doing a snatch. I've done ten thousands of snatches and
Speaker 3: clean and jerks and lifts throughout my going on eleven
Speaker 3: years of training, So I already have the outcome that
Speaker 3: I want. I know the process to get there. So
Speaker 3: a lot of it is just I make lifts. That's
Speaker 3: what I do. That's just kind of what I do.
Speaker 3: I make lifts and kind of say that repeatedly as
Speaker 3: I've already done it. I have done it. I did
Speaker 3: it in the warm ups, you know, leading up to it.
Speaker 3: The only thing that's changed is the weight on the bar.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's it.
Speaker 1: So it's a lot of positive mental attitude just I'm
Speaker 1: already there, it just hasn't happened yet. I should have
Speaker 1: said this before, but this snatch is from the ground
Speaker 1: to the air in one movement, and the clean and
Speaker 1: jerk is from the ground to your shoulders, and then
Speaker 1: the jerk part is the press above your shoulders. So
Speaker 1: for people who don't know the difference between those two,
Speaker 1: they're similar but distinct.
Speaker 2: So take us to Paris.
Speaker 1: You win, you set a record, You put the US
Speaker 1: back on top for the first time in decades.
Speaker 2: What were the emotions?
Speaker 3: It was a lot. It happened so fast. We were
Speaker 3: in the Olympic village for like three four weeks, almost
Speaker 3: a month before we competed.
Speaker 2: Wow, why so long to acclimate?
Speaker 3: And because we could be in the Olympic village that long,
Speaker 3: and we were like, all right, we'll do it. Who's
Speaker 3: we me Mary Jordan Hampton, Wes we or the twenty
Speaker 3: twenty four Olympians for weightlifting, for USA weightlifting. So we
Speaker 3: were able to stay and watch other sports compete, and
Speaker 3: so that was really exciting. But it was just like okay,
Speaker 3: when's it my turn? Okay, like can I go now? Please?
Speaker 3: Get it be my turn to just like let's do it,
Speaker 3: and so weightlifting was the last three or four days.
Speaker 3: Mary are super heavy. Wait went on the last day
Speaker 3: of closing ceremonies.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 3: So it was very much go to Paris. You're there.
Speaker 3: Training was not going amazing for me, but then you
Speaker 3: compete and then it's like boom, go home, it's done.
Speaker 1: And I was like, whoa, Yeah, it's more fun to
Speaker 1: compete first and then get to hang out in the
Speaker 1: village after and enjoy everybody else without the stress. So
Speaker 1: we hear a lot about the sort of Olympic letdown,
Speaker 1: even if you win, just the idea of like you've
Speaker 1: built it up so much and now it's over.
Speaker 2: Even though you came home.
Speaker 1: With gold, there was like you just said this quick
Speaker 1: turnaround from excitement, excitement, build up, build up up, go home.
Speaker 2: So what did it feel like? Did you have a letdown?
Speaker 3: I think so. I took two weeks off from training,
Speaker 3: didn't go in the gym. I had a lot after that,
Speaker 3: being from Chattanooga, coming back to Chattanooga having being involved
Speaker 3: so heavily in this city. There was a lot of
Speaker 3: media or just local things. They did a parade, I
Speaker 3: have a keyping city cool. They had fun stuff, like that.
Speaker 3: That made it fun to be home and out and about.
Speaker 3: There was a bit of a letdown in training, but
Speaker 3: I had the World Championships in December that year, and
Speaker 3: we got home mid August and I started my last
Speaker 3: semester of my undergraduates. So I did have quite a
Speaker 3: bit going on to be like, there's no time to
Speaker 3: really dwell on. Like the Olympics happened. That was awesome.
Speaker 3: I have so much to be grateful for from that,
Speaker 3: and I love that experience, but I got to get
Speaker 3: through the year first. There are a couple more things
Speaker 3: I gotta do before we can take a breath just yet.
Speaker 2: Did you feel like your life has changed a lot
Speaker 2: since winning gold?
Speaker 3: Not really, more people just know about it. Yeah, They'll
Speaker 3: look at me and they'll go, uh, do I know you?
Speaker 1: Like I would be like, probably from my gold Olympic medal,
Speaker 1: I'd be like, I'm not going to give you a
Speaker 1: second to say kindergarten. I'm just going to offer up
Speaker 1: gold medal and see if that's it.
Speaker 3: They're like, oh my gosh, yeah, And it's like so
Speaker 3: like my high school had a billboard up for a minute,
Speaker 3: like they did. UTC did a lot so it does
Speaker 3: happen still on occasion that people are like, wait a.
Speaker 1: Minute, a little bit. It's not the same as like Elasulou.
Speaker 1: There are certain events in certain sports where it becomes
Speaker 1: a global sensation versus weightlifting, which still needs to get
Speaker 1: a little bit more love, which could happen in LA
Speaker 1: twenty eight. There's a real opportunity for that. So I
Speaker 1: know you set a new American record this March right, yes, yes,
Speaker 1: at the Arnold unofficial world record.
Speaker 2: Yes, Why was it unofficial?
Speaker 3: It has to be an International Weightlifting Federation competition for
Speaker 3: it to be a world or Pan American record for US.
Speaker 3: By no means am I complaining about I understand the rules.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it makes sense.
Speaker 1: So what are your goals in upcoming competitions or big
Speaker 1: ten pole events or what are the things you're kind
Speaker 1: of tracking as we get closer to LA twenty eight.
Speaker 3: So qualification starts this November in China. We have our
Speaker 3: first qualifier, which is the twenty twenty six Senior World Championship.
Speaker 3: A World Championships is already a pretty big deal, but
Speaker 3: because it's an Olympic qualifier and the first one, it
Speaker 3: does kind of sets the tone. If you will for
Speaker 3: many people, but you need five qualifiers before they name
Speaker 3: the Olympic team. So and that takes you up until
Speaker 3: March of twenty twenty eight. They won't name the team
Speaker 3: until like a couple months before. So all I know
Speaker 3: is I have to do five. I don't even know
Speaker 3: which five exactly that will be planned based on my
Speaker 3: performance at whichever ones and the timing of it all.
Speaker 3: I don't think they even have all five.
Speaker 1: Like right mapped out, but you know you'll start with
Speaker 1: Worlds this fall. Yes, when you say name the team,
Speaker 1: does that mean it's a subjective choice where they're selecting
Speaker 1: members based on performance or do you have to hit marks?
Speaker 2: And then it's based on those marks.
Speaker 3: So for weightlifting, it's probably the least subjective sport we've
Speaker 3: got because it's either you make the total or you don't.
Speaker 3: You're either you're ranked so high or you're not.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 3: A full team is three women and three men. That's
Speaker 3: the max you can send for weightlifting. Each have to
Speaker 3: be you can't have two athletes in the same weight class,
Speaker 3: and in order to qualify to go to the Olympics,
Speaker 3: you have to be in the top eight of the world. Wow.
Speaker 1: Okay, so you got to get all those all those
Speaker 1: things and only one spot per country for a weight
Speaker 1: class is really tough. Geez, I saw this stat about
Speaker 1: US weightlifting. So this came out after the Paris Games.
Speaker 1: Sixteen gold, seventeen silver, eight bronze medals at the Olympics
Speaker 1: for US weightlifters, that's a total of forty four.
Speaker 2: So that's third.
Speaker 1: All time, behind only the Soviet Union in China, who
Speaker 1: are tied at sixty two, which is good, but only
Speaker 1: ten of those forty four US medals have come since
Speaker 1: nineteen sixty eight, so there was this golden era and
Speaker 1: it hasn't been the same since. But you're part of
Speaker 1: this potential resurgence for US weightlifting. A lot of hope
Speaker 1: around you and the team, So how you do in
Speaker 1: LA could have a really big impact on young girls
Speaker 1: deciding to try the sport. What does that honor and
Speaker 1: I guess that responsibility and maybe a little bit pressure
Speaker 1: mean to you.
Speaker 3: It means so much to be on the other side
Speaker 3: of it, basically growing up in this sport and in
Speaker 3: CrossFit and weightlifting and looking up and being able to
Speaker 3: see other athletes get to the Olympics and achieve these things,
Speaker 3: and now I'm here being able to do that and
Speaker 3: set an example and not just lead by example, but
Speaker 3: inspire other athletes. And now it's not like we're barely
Speaker 3: sending women's teams. No, we have too many women to send.
Speaker 3: We have too many women that are too good to
Speaker 3: send to these And it's not like a, well, I
Speaker 3: hope we meddle at the World Championships. No, we're going
Speaker 3: to meddle at the World Championships. And being able to
Speaker 3: change that part of the conversation has been amazing to
Speaker 3: be a part of.
Speaker 1: Yeah, what would you say to parents who might want
Speaker 1: to get their girls in weightlifting, or even maybe if
Speaker 1: there's teens or young women themselves that are listening.
Speaker 3: Find a gym and start doing it the earlier you can.
Speaker 3: There are so many benefits to weightlifting, not only like
Speaker 3: this doesn't have to be your sport or the thing
Speaker 3: that you do. That's completely fine. This is such a
Speaker 3: great supplemental way to move to build any sort of
Speaker 3: speed and strength. If you want to be a basketball player,
Speaker 3: if you want to be a volleyball player, a soccer like,
Speaker 3: there's so many benefits to strength training, not just specifically
Speaker 3: Olympic weightlifting that only help you, and starting at a
Speaker 3: younger age and building that body awareness and that movement
Speaker 3: powdern can help you get ahead of other kids who
Speaker 3: aren't doing that. That's saying you need to maximize absolutely
Speaker 3: everything would be the bed like, no, no, no, There
Speaker 3: are many upsides to strength training, especially for women. I
Speaker 3: remember being in high school and wanting to take the
Speaker 3: wellness class was the strength and conditioning class, and you know,
Speaker 3: the guys would go and max out their power, clean
Speaker 3: and squat whatever, and the girls would walk around the
Speaker 3: gym for an hour. And I had already been weightlifting,
Speaker 3: and I was like, this is gonna be awesome. I
Speaker 3: can lift here like you know, while in school and
Speaker 3: do whatever. But I was like, this actually stinks. Yeah,
Speaker 3: what do you mean you're not gonna teach us the
Speaker 3: time hands? You mean to tell me you don't have
Speaker 3: any women's bars in here?
Speaker 2: Mmm? Sounds like a Title nine violation, Olivia.
Speaker 3: Do you like my high school?
Speaker 2: We can like that high school. We could still call
Speaker 2: them out.
Speaker 3: I agreed. It's little things like that where it's not
Speaker 3: exactly discouragement from a living you're just not encouraged or
Speaker 3: there's no information about it or how.
Speaker 1: To do it, what I would say is, even though
Speaker 1: of course it's great for young people who want to
Speaker 1: do other sports or just want to get involved, as
Speaker 1: someone who is an athlete myself, it's been so useful
Speaker 1: for me to have learned how to do things correctly
Speaker 1: with the support of coaches and trainers, so that now
Speaker 1: in my everyday life, I can go to the gym
Speaker 1: and know the proper form for all the different things
Speaker 1: I'm doing without needing to have.
Speaker 2: Supervision for it.
Speaker 1: And especially for older women where they get told yet again,
Speaker 1: strength training is what you need during perimenopause and all
Speaker 1: the other things as your bones changed. Like to already
Speaker 1: know what I'm doing instead of having to teach myself
Speaker 1: is really beneficial.
Speaker 2: So I think you're right.
Speaker 1: It's not just about beating people's asses, although that is
Speaker 1: my favorite part of doing things, there are other side
Speaker 1: benefits as well. Okay, I have one last question for you, because,
Speaker 1: like I said earlier, you're only twenty three. You've accomplished
Speaker 1: so much already, you have a long career yet to go.
Speaker 1: But also you're thinking about life outside of the sport,
Speaker 1: and I mentioned your master's program. What are you hoping
Speaker 1: to do with that degree, because I've seen some quotes
Speaker 1: around addressing barriers within different sports to make them more accessible,
Speaker 1: Understanding you know, people's lifestyles and how communities function in
Speaker 1: terms of health. Like, there's so many interesting ways to
Speaker 1: take what you're learning.
Speaker 3: I knew I wanted to go into a health aspect.
Speaker 3: That's been a huge part of my life, my parents
Speaker 3: owning a gym and needing an athlete. So finding public health,
Speaker 3: which was originally my major, but then coming back to
Speaker 3: UDC and finding sociology and be able to learn about
Speaker 3: social determinants of health and ways that you can impact
Speaker 3: a community and less at the individual level. But there's
Speaker 3: no preventative approach really to medicine. And that's what I
Speaker 3: found through public health, specifically chronic disease and prevention is
Speaker 3: creating pathways that prevent people from ending up at a hospital.
Speaker 3: That's lifestyle changes, that's community implementation, and less like me
Speaker 3: as an individual eating healthy, it's how can I set
Speaker 3: myself up from things in my community to make sure
Speaker 3: I am healthy, but also contributing in a way. Cool.
Speaker 2: That sounds so fascinating.
Speaker 3: I love it. I love it and cannot say enough
Speaker 3: good things, but how I fit that into weightlifting is
Speaker 3: kind of what I'm trying to figure out. I'm definitely
Speaker 3: looking forward to that, and I really think I have
Speaker 3: found something that's broad enough. But the topic that I
Speaker 3: want in terms of moving forward in a professional sense.
Speaker 1: Well, you're a head of a lot of other people,
Speaker 1: and if it doesn't work out, you and I both
Speaker 1: have the same tenure plan, which is get rich and
Speaker 1: famous and live on a farm, So we can always
Speaker 1: just find some empty space together and go hang out
Speaker 1: with our donkeys and dogs and horses.
Speaker 3: I would love absolutely nothing more.
Speaker 1: We'll see you there. Thanks again to Olivia for taking
Speaker 1: the time.
Speaker 2: Don't forget.
Speaker 1: You can now watch full length good game interviews on
Speaker 1: the Iheartwomen's Sports YouTube channel.
Speaker 2: So head on over to subscribe. We have to take
Speaker 2: another break.
Speaker 1: When we return, they can hoop, make us laugh and
Speaker 1: make us cry.
Speaker 3: Damn.
Speaker 2: Welcome Max Slices.
Speaker 1: We love that you're listening, but we want you to
Speaker 1: get in the game every day too, So here's our
Speaker 1: good game play of the day. Go to YouTube and
Speaker 1: watch the speeches from the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of
Speaker 1: Fame induction on Saturday night, Elena Deladon, Shamika Holds claw
Speaker 1: Kandae Parker and the entire team USA nineteen ninety six
Speaker 1: Women's Olympic gold medal squad, including Cheryl Spoops, Lisa Leslie,
Speaker 1: Don Staley, Rebecca Lobo and coach tar Vanderveer were honored
Speaker 1: and their speeches are more than worth your time. Teladan
Speaker 1: got emotional while talking about her sister and when shouting
Speaker 1: out Sylvia Fowls Holtz Claw touchh on her mental health
Speaker 1: struggles and said to anyone else who might.
Speaker 2: Be struggling, I see you. Your struggle doesn't disqualify you.
Speaker 1: And Parker spoke directly to an actual basketball while remembering
Speaker 1: quote a love story that began twenty seven years ago.
Speaker 1: End quote also shouts to Candas for sneaking in some
Speaker 1: hoops and gay shit.
Speaker 2: Quarter four.
Speaker 1: I changed teams both literally and figuratively.
Speaker 2: We'll put the links in the show notes.
Speaker 1: We always love to hear from you, so hit us
Speaker 1: up on email, good game at wondermedianetwork dot com or
Speaker 1: leave us a voicemail at eight seven two two o
Speaker 1: four fifty seventy, and don't forget to subscribe, rate and review.
Speaker 1: It's easy watch Move in your bod to Boost your Brain,
Speaker 1: rating five out of five stars for letting us know
Speaker 1: all the hard work is worth it.
Speaker 2: Review.
Speaker 1: The Women's Sports Foundation partnered up with Got Them See
Speaker 1: and Flamingo Hair and Body Care for Built to Move,
Speaker 1: a research initiative looking at how movement fosters body appreciation
Speaker 1: and body confidence for women. They're finding show that for women, quote,
Speaker 1: physical activity is associated with greater body appreciation, improved physical
Speaker 1: and mental health, and increased feelings of strength, power and
Speaker 1: pride in what their bodies can do.
Speaker 2: End quote.
Speaker 1: It seems kind of obvious, but how many times do
Speaker 1: you sit on the couch you need a pint of
Speaker 1: ice cream when you're sad, instead of walking the dog
Speaker 1: or going on a hike, or, like Olivia reeves, maybe
Speaker 1: lifting some weights. Get that body move in, y'all see
Speaker 1: how much your brain will respond. The study showed that
Speaker 1: women who are physically active two to four hours per
Speaker 1: week are nearly two times is likely to report positive
Speaker 1: body appreciation compared with women who are inactive or active
Speaker 1: less than an hour per week, and movers were also
Speaker 1: forty six percent more likely to report good mental health.
Speaker 1: We'll link to the mini report and the full research
Speaker 1: in the show notes. If you want to check it
Speaker 1: out now, it's your turn. Y'all rate and review, Thanks
Speaker 1: for listening, See you tomorrow. Good game, Olivia, Good game
Speaker 1: everyday folks getting in the gym to stay strong, whether
Speaker 1: that's CrossFit, powerlifting, weightlifting, or something else. You anyone who
Speaker 1: makes the weight sections of a gym feel exclusive, unwelcoming,
Speaker 1: or inaccessible to people who want to learn how to lift.
Speaker 1: Good Game with Sarah Spain is an iHeart women's sports
Speaker 1: production in partnership with Deep Blue Sports and Entertainment. You
Speaker 1: can find us on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
Speaker 1: wherever you get your podcasts. Production by Wonder Media Network,
Speaker 1: our producers are Alex Azzi and Bianca Hillier. Our executive
Speaker 1: producers are Christina Everett, Jesse Katz, Jenny Kaplan, and Emily Rudder.
Speaker 1: Our editors are Emily Rudder, Lucy Jones, Britney Martinez, and
Speaker 1: Gianna Palmer. Production assistants from Avery Loftus and I'm Your
Speaker 1: Host Sarah Spain