WEBVTT - 10,000 Clean and Jerks with Olivia Reeves 0:00:01.120 --> 0:00:03.280 Welcome to Good Game with Sarah Spain, where we're thanking 0:00:03.360 --> 0:00:06.040 the weather gods for clearing the skies and ending the 0:00:06.120 --> 0:00:08.920 rain just in time for Mountjoy to play three straight 0:00:09.000 --> 0:00:10.280 perfect cloud free. 0:00:10.200 --> 0:00:11.040 Nights in Denver. 0:00:11.800 --> 0:00:14.800 It's Monday, August seventeenth, and on today's show, weightlifting Olympic 0:00:14.920 --> 0:00:17.840 champion Olivia Reeves joins the show. We talk about how 0:00:17.880 --> 0:00:20.599 her CrossFit parents got her into the sport, the difference 0:00:20.640 --> 0:00:25.000 between powerlifting, bodybuilding and weightlifting, when she knew she had talent, 0:00:25.120 --> 0:00:27.880 the obstacles she faced en route to Olympic glory, and 0:00:27.920 --> 0:00:30.800 what her plans are for LA twenty twenty eight and beyond. 0:00:31.400 --> 0:00:35.320 Plus crowns all around, an iconic wind streak is no more, 0:00:35.640 --> 0:00:38.080 and a reminder to always find your seat in time 0:00:38.120 --> 0:00:46.960 for kickoff. It's all coming up right after this Welcome 0:00:47.000 --> 0:00:51.440 back slices. Here's what you need to know today. Lots 0:00:51.479 --> 0:00:55.160 of championships and major competitions over the weekends, starting with lacrosse. 0:00:55.480 --> 0:00:58.040 The Maryland Charm won the twenty twenty six Women's Lcross 0:00:58.080 --> 0:01:02.200 League Championship on Saturday, beating the California Palms sixteen thirteen. 0:01:02.600 --> 0:01:06.320 The Charms Sydney Black got MVP honors. The former Loyalist 0:01:06.360 --> 0:01:08.640 standout had four goals and an assist in the game, 0:01:08.880 --> 0:01:11.800 held at Subru Park just outside of Philadelphia. The Charms 0:01:11.840 --> 0:01:15.400 Alex Holman also had an outstanding game. After registering zero 0:01:15.520 --> 0:01:17.840 goals during the regular season, she managed to pull out 0:01:17.840 --> 0:01:21.240 a hat trick in the title game. Clutch to Flag 0:01:21.280 --> 0:01:24.240 Football Canada women's national team won the Flag Football World 0:01:24.319 --> 0:01:28.119 Championships in Duseldorf, Germany, on Sunday, beating Team USA twenty 0:01:28.160 --> 0:01:30.760 seven to twenty in the finals. The US, who were 0:01:30.760 --> 0:01:33.120 the reigning champs, looked like they were gaining momentum in 0:01:33.160 --> 0:01:35.119 the final few minutes of the game, but they ran 0:01:35.160 --> 0:01:37.360 out of time and couldn't catch up to Canada's lead. 0:01:37.760 --> 0:01:40.240 With the win, Canada gets the first earned spot in 0:01:40.280 --> 0:01:42.959 the sport at LA twenty twenty eight. The US has 0:01:43.040 --> 0:01:46.720 already qualified as hosts of the games, the final Olympic. 0:01:46.440 --> 0:01:48.440 Spot handed out at the tournament. Germany made it a 0:01:48.480 --> 0:01:49.600 North American sweep. 0:01:49.880 --> 0:01:53.080 Mexico bested Great Britain twenty nineteen to punch their ticket 0:01:53.160 --> 0:01:55.760 to LA as well. The final three national teams to 0:01:55.840 --> 0:01:58.400 qualify will be determined in June of twenty twenty eight, 0:01:58.800 --> 0:02:02.280 just about one month before the Olympic tournament begins, to 0:02:02.320 --> 0:02:04.800 the pool, where a few results caught our attention at 0:02:04.840 --> 0:02:08.959 the Pan Pacific Championships in Irvine, California. First, of all, guys, 0:02:08.960 --> 0:02:12.360 this is crazy TMUSA Olympic champion Kate Douglas broke the 0:02:12.400 --> 0:02:16.680 fifty meter freestyle world record not once, but twice on Saturday. 0:02:17.080 --> 0:02:18.760 First, she won her prelim. 0:02:18.360 --> 0:02:21.360 Heat and twenty three point forty nine seconds world record. 0:02:21.800 --> 0:02:24.919 Then mere hours later she swam even faster twenty three 0:02:24.960 --> 0:02:28.000 point nineteen to win the finals. We'll see how long 0:02:28.000 --> 0:02:30.639 this record stands. Last time Douglas broke the fifty free 0:02:30.639 --> 0:02:33.679 record in June, fellow US star Gretchen Walsh beat it 0:02:33.720 --> 0:02:37.320 again just nine days later. Always good to have competition 0:02:37.400 --> 0:02:39.840 to keep your pushing your limits. By the way, the 0:02:39.880 --> 0:02:42.880 fifty free isn't the only event in which Douglas made history. 0:02:43.080 --> 0:02:45.440 The five time Olympic medalist was also on the mixed 0:02:45.480 --> 0:02:47.520 four by one hundred meter medley relay that set a 0:02:47.520 --> 0:02:51.240 new world record on Wednesday. More swimming eight hundred meter 0:02:51.280 --> 0:02:54.320 freestyle legend Katie Ldecki stunned the crowd over the weekend 0:02:54.720 --> 0:02:58.120 by for the first time in an international meet, losing 0:02:58.280 --> 0:03:01.880 her signature event all thanks to Lonnie Pallister of Australia, 0:03:01.880 --> 0:03:04.880 who touched over a second ahead of her. Pallister was 0:03:05.040 --> 0:03:07.160 underworld record pace for much of the eight hundred meter 0:03:07.240 --> 0:03:10.400 freestyle race, eventually fading slightly but still getting to the 0:03:10.400 --> 0:03:13.919 wall in eight minutes and six seconds, besting Ladeki's Pan 0:03:13.960 --> 0:03:17.320 Pacific Championships record from twenty eighteen. Now this is the 0:03:17.360 --> 0:03:19.919 same Aussie swimmer who finished just a couple seconds behind 0:03:19.960 --> 0:03:23.040 Ladeki in the fifteen hundred last week. That was Ladeki's 0:03:23.080 --> 0:03:25.240 smallest margin of victory in the event at an international 0:03:25.280 --> 0:03:29.919 competition since twenty thirteen. So Lonnie Pallister is definitely walking 0:03:29.960 --> 0:03:32.320 away from the biggest swim meet of the year, having 0:03:32.400 --> 0:03:36.560 made her name known ahead of the twenty twenty eight Games. 0:03:36.600 --> 0:03:39.680 To soccer, Cameroon won the Women's Africa Cup of Nations 0:03:39.680 --> 0:03:43.440 on Sunday, defeating Malawi three nil. It marks Cameron's first 0:03:43.480 --> 0:03:46.320 ever WAFT Coon title after the team previously made the 0:03:46.320 --> 0:03:49.960 final of the tournament three times. Cameroon's Monique Nagaka was 0:03:50.040 --> 0:03:52.280 named Player of the tournament, and you're about to see 0:03:52.280 --> 0:03:54.760 a lot more of her last month, The Washington's Beard 0:03:54.760 --> 0:03:56.880 announced that the team had signed the twenty one year old, 0:03:57.160 --> 0:03:59.120 and now that Lafcon is over, she's headed to d 0:03:59.240 --> 0:04:01.160 C to make HERSL debut. 0:04:01.920 --> 0:04:02.560 More Soccer. 0:04:02.840 --> 0:04:05.560 If you weren't in your seat at Sports Illustrated Stadium 0:04:05.600 --> 0:04:07.840 in time, you might have missed the first goal of 0:04:07.960 --> 0:04:11.480 Current Gotham FC on Friday Kansas City Ford. Amelia White 0:04:11.520 --> 0:04:13.720 made quick work of things, scoring for the Current just 0:04:13.760 --> 0:04:16.679 twenty two seconds into the game. Thanks to an assist 0:04:16.720 --> 0:04:18.599 from Kroy Bethune, White was able to get the ball 0:04:18.640 --> 0:04:21.279 past Gotham goalie and Katrin Berger and into the back 0:04:21.279 --> 0:04:24.480 of the net, tying the NWSL record for fastest goal 0:04:24.520 --> 0:04:27.159 in league history. It ended up being the only goal 0:04:27.200 --> 0:04:29.680 the Current could muster, though, as goals from Midge Purs 0:04:29.760 --> 0:04:31.840 and Sam Kerr gave got them a two to one 0:04:31.960 --> 0:04:35.000 comeback win. With her tally, Kerr became the first player 0:04:35.000 --> 0:04:38.599 in NWSL history to reach eighty regular season goals, and 0:04:38.680 --> 0:04:41.560 her thirty one regular season goals for Gotham FC set 0:04:41.560 --> 0:04:44.279 a new club record. Now, twenty eight of those tallies 0:04:44.320 --> 0:04:47.039 came when the team was still sky Blue. The Australian 0:04:47.040 --> 0:04:49.560 striker has added three goals since rejoining the club in 0:04:49.600 --> 0:04:52.600 the middle of this season two hoops where the Minnesota 0:04:52.640 --> 0:04:55.200 Links beat the Las Vegas Aces ninety two eighty seven 0:04:55.240 --> 0:04:57.200 on Saturday, marking their second win. 0:04:57.120 --> 0:04:59.200 In a week over the reigning league champions. 0:04:59.440 --> 0:05:01.840 The Links via Miles had twenty three to lead them, 0:05:01.839 --> 0:05:05.400 while the FISA Collier added nineteen asstar Asia Wilson had 0:05:05.440 --> 0:05:08.359 thirty two points in her team's losing effort, which dropped 0:05:08.360 --> 0:05:11.159 the Aces to third place in the league's standings. Golden 0:05:11.160 --> 0:05:13.880 State Balkyries sit in second, and the Links remain in first. 0:05:14.279 --> 0:05:16.640 The Aces did clinch a playoff spot on Thursday when 0:05:16.680 --> 0:05:19.719 they beat the Washington Mystics, though marking their eighth straight 0:05:19.800 --> 0:05:22.440 postseason birth. The Links are the only other team to 0:05:22.440 --> 0:05:25.520 secure their spot in the playoffs at this time. More 0:05:25.640 --> 0:05:27.720 w last week, New York Liberty head coach Chris de 0:05:27.800 --> 0:05:30.359 Marco announced that Satu Sabli will be taking time away 0:05:30.360 --> 0:05:32.520 from the team as she continues to deal with the 0:05:32.600 --> 0:05:35.880 lingering effects of a concussion. Sabli hasn't played since suffering 0:05:35.920 --> 0:05:38.320 the head injury against the Aces on June twenty third. 0:05:38.640 --> 0:05:41.279 It was her second concussion in the past year. She's 0:05:41.320 --> 0:05:43.560 been available to play in just thirteen games for the 0:05:43.600 --> 0:05:46.080 Liberty this season since joining the team in the off season. 0:05:46.560 --> 0:05:48.960 No word yet on an estimated return or on her 0:05:49.000 --> 0:05:52.360 availability for her German national team in next month's FEBA 0:05:52.400 --> 0:05:56.359 World Cup. More w and a celebration fit for a legend, 0:05:56.720 --> 0:05:58.919 go check out the Phoenix Mercury Socials for all the 0:05:58.920 --> 0:06:02.120 coverage of the jersey retis retirement for the legendary Diana Tarassi. 0:06:02.520 --> 0:06:04.719 In the days leading up to her Ring of Honor ceremony, 0:06:04.720 --> 0:06:07.520 the team unveiled a street named after her, a really 0:06:07.560 --> 0:06:11.960 spectacular interactive mural, a sit down interview with her former teammate, 0:06:12.040 --> 0:06:14.680 now wife and fellow Ring of Honor legend Penny Taylor, 0:06:14.920 --> 0:06:17.720 and so much more So cool to see DT get 0:06:17.720 --> 0:06:20.120 her flowers. We'll link to the Mercury account in the 0:06:20.120 --> 0:06:23.719 show notes. There's just one W game on the schedule tonight. 0:06:23.800 --> 0:06:26.400 The Dallas Wings play the Golden State Valkyries at ten pm. 0:06:26.400 --> 0:06:28.719 Eastern Wings are coming off a loss to the Indiana 0:06:28.720 --> 0:06:31.440 Fever on Friday. That's a former number one picks Caitlin 0:06:31.520 --> 0:06:33.839 Clark and Paige Becker's dueling. 0:06:33.839 --> 0:06:34.880 Twenty nine apiece. 0:06:35.200 --> 0:06:38.120 At one point they traded buckets for thirteen straight points. 0:06:38.279 --> 0:06:39.840 Hope you caught some of that one. 0:06:39.880 --> 0:06:42.080 Meantime, The Fever followed up that Friday win with a 0:06:42.160 --> 0:06:44.920 ninety five ninety one OT victory over the Atlanta Dream 0:06:44.960 --> 0:06:45.440 on Sunday. 0:06:45.640 --> 0:06:46.640 Despite thirty two. 0:06:46.480 --> 0:06:49.400 Points from Malley Shagray and the loss, Kelsey Mitchell likely 0:06:49.400 --> 0:06:52.080 happy about that extra session, she managed to get to 0:06:52.120 --> 0:06:55.159 twenty points in OT and extend her WNBA record to 0:06:55.320 --> 0:06:59.599 nineteen straight games with twenty or more points. To Tennis, 0:07:00.160 --> 0:07:03.120 Williams continues her comeback tour today, teaming up with sister 0:07:03.200 --> 0:07:05.320 Venus to play doubles at the Cincinnati Open. 0:07:05.600 --> 0:07:07.000 Venus is coming off a loss. 0:07:06.760 --> 0:07:09.159 On Friday, falling in straight sets in the first round 0:07:09.200 --> 0:07:12.800 of the Open singles tournament to Emilian Orongo. The older 0:07:12.800 --> 0:07:15.840 William's sister had received a wildcard entry to the singles event. 0:07:16.080 --> 0:07:19.480 She hasn't won a singles match since July of last year. Today, 0:07:19.560 --> 0:07:21.520 the sisters will play a doubles team made up of 0:07:21.600 --> 0:07:25.480 US pro Peyton Stearns and Ukrainian Marta Costuk, who recently 0:07:25.480 --> 0:07:28.520 made headlines for winning her first WTA one thousand title 0:07:28.560 --> 0:07:30.320 at the Madrid Open back in May. 0:07:30.680 --> 0:07:31.920 You can watch on the Tennis. 0:07:31.720 --> 0:07:35.400 Channel or the Tennis Channel app finally to baseball, where 0:07:35.480 --> 0:07:37.720 Kelsey Whitmore is on a hell of a run with 0:07:37.800 --> 0:07:40.760 her San Francisco fire Bells. On Wednesday, the friend of 0:07:40.800 --> 0:07:43.240 the show recorded the first three home run game in 0:07:43.440 --> 0:07:47.400 WPBL history to beat the Los Angeles Queens eight to two. 0:07:47.560 --> 0:07:50.840 Then on Friday, Whitmore had two more homers, then on 0:07:50.880 --> 0:07:54.320 Saturday another one, putting Whitmore in a tie for most 0:07:54.360 --> 0:07:58.080 home runs this season with New York's Dene Benitas Danita Benita, 0:07:58.440 --> 0:08:01.679 who coincidentally Whitmore and her San Francisco squad will face 0:08:01.680 --> 0:08:03.360 for their next game on Wednesday. 0:08:03.600 --> 0:08:04.920 By the way, shouts to slice. 0:08:04.920 --> 0:08:08.320 Marguerite Maganaute, who wrote that she also calls her Danita Benita. 0:08:08.360 --> 0:08:10.560 So I am not alone, she said when she was 0:08:10.600 --> 0:08:12.560 listening to the episode from opening Days. She said it 0:08:12.560 --> 0:08:14.680 in her head right before I said it, and she 0:08:14.800 --> 0:08:17.360 laughed to herself and has since been so confused that 0:08:17.400 --> 0:08:19.280 she had to look up what her real name is. 0:08:19.600 --> 0:08:26.240 So thank you, Marguerite, Danita Benita. Forever we got to 0:08:26.280 --> 0:08:28.000 take a break. When we come back, we head to 0:08:28.040 --> 0:08:38.800 the gym with Olivia Reeves joining us. Now she's an 0:08:38.800 --> 0:08:41.760 Olympic gold medalist in Team USA weightlifter at the twenty 0:08:41.800 --> 0:08:44.280 twenty four Paris Game. She became the first American weightlifter 0:08:44.360 --> 0:08:46.600 to win Olympic gold in twenty four years and the 0:08:46.640 --> 0:08:50.320 youngest American Olympic gold medalist in weightlifting in sixty eight years. 0:08:50.600 --> 0:08:52.920 Oh and she also set an Olympic record along the way. 0:08:53.120 --> 0:08:55.640 She also won the World Weightlifting Championships later that year, 0:08:55.640 --> 0:08:58.360 becoming the first US lifter in sixty six years to hold. 0:08:58.240 --> 0:09:00.280 Both the world title and an Olympic gold in the 0:09:00.320 --> 0:09:00.760 same year. 0:09:01.040 --> 0:09:03.680 And then she repeated as World weightlifting champ in twenty 0:09:03.679 --> 0:09:05.560 twenty five as well. She'll try to make it a 0:09:05.600 --> 0:09:08.760 three peet this fall. A Chattanooga, Tennessee native, she got 0:09:08.760 --> 0:09:11.080 her degree in sociology and is now a graduate student 0:09:11.120 --> 0:09:14.360 in the UT Chattanooga Master of Public Health program studying 0:09:14.440 --> 0:09:17.560 chronic disease prevention and control. She's a pity mom to 0:09:17.600 --> 0:09:21.000 miss Amber, and she's ice skated at Rockefeller Center and 0:09:21.040 --> 0:09:22.600 fed gushers to a raccoon. 0:09:22.720 --> 0:09:24.040 It's Olivia Reeves. 0:09:24.240 --> 0:09:27.000 Hi, Olivia, my goodness, you did your research. 0:09:28.440 --> 0:09:28.800 Wow. 0:09:29.040 --> 0:09:32.040 Mostly jealous of the raccoon that got the gushers. What 0:09:32.120 --> 0:09:34.200 country were you in for that that looked like you 0:09:34.240 --> 0:09:35.120 were in a foreign country. 0:09:35.160 --> 0:09:39.240 I was in Panama. They were pretty scary looking, very 0:09:39.240 --> 0:09:42.240 skinny for raccoons, the skinniest skinniest I've seen, and. 0:09:42.200 --> 0:09:44.520 Not fuzzy, not fuzzy. They weren't furrey. 0:09:44.600 --> 0:09:47.559 I'm not really sure what raccoons are getting into, but yeah, 0:09:47.600 --> 0:09:48.360 that was a lot of fun. 0:09:48.480 --> 0:09:50.520 I'm a huge raccoon fan, and I would like to 0:09:50.520 --> 0:09:53.520 make one a pet, even though all best judgment advises 0:09:53.520 --> 0:09:55.960 me against that. So very jealous of that. I want 0:09:55.960 --> 0:09:57.640 to get back to when you were a kid and 0:09:57.679 --> 0:09:59.560 go all the way back to when you first started lifting, 0:10:00.120 --> 0:10:00.880 got you into it. 0:10:01.000 --> 0:10:03.800 My parents owned a CrossFit gym from twenty twelve to 0:10:03.800 --> 0:10:10.200 twenty nineteen, and I started Olympic weightlifting specifically in twenty fifteen. 0:10:11.200 --> 0:10:13.560 My coach, who is still my coach, would come in 0:10:13.600 --> 0:10:17.520 and do like USAW level ones, do seminars for crossfitters 0:10:17.559 --> 0:10:20.880 who wanted to do strength training, and through that, as 0:10:20.960 --> 0:10:23.200 long as I've had all my homework done and I 0:10:23.240 --> 0:10:25.400 packed an extra snack, my mom was like, Okay, you 0:10:25.440 --> 0:10:28.640 can participate, and then she was like, actually you could 0:10:28.679 --> 0:10:30.800 do this. You could train at Steve's gym and just 0:10:30.880 --> 0:10:32.960 make this your sport if you didn't want to do 0:10:33.040 --> 0:10:36.120 CrossFit or kind of you know, just to add something 0:10:36.160 --> 0:10:37.839 else if you wanted to. After I went to my 0:10:37.880 --> 0:10:41.960 first USA Weightlifting Nationals and a training camp at the OTC, 0:10:42.280 --> 0:10:45.760 I decided that this was my sport. Not that I 0:10:45.840 --> 0:10:47.600 found that I was super good at it yet, but 0:10:47.760 --> 0:10:49.480 just this is something I wanted to do and that 0:10:49.559 --> 0:10:50.080 I enjoyed. 0:10:50.240 --> 0:10:53.280 Those years sound very recent, but it's just that you're 0:10:53.360 --> 0:10:55.920 very young. You're only twenty three, so they're not that 0:10:56.000 --> 0:10:57.520 recent in the timeline of your life. 0:10:57.559 --> 0:10:59.120 You actually were in fourth grade when you. 0:10:59.080 --> 0:11:02.400 Started lifting at your parents gym. Did you play other sports? 0:11:02.440 --> 0:11:03.520 Did you like other sports? 0:11:03.760 --> 0:11:09.680 I did my fair share of soccer, track, cross country, basketball, ballet, 0:11:09.800 --> 0:11:13.480 horseback riding. Like I tried quite a bit. I realized later, 0:11:13.720 --> 0:11:16.480 because I was still friends with people from elementary school that, 0:11:16.760 --> 0:11:19.280 like I thought it was okay at the sport or 0:11:19.320 --> 0:11:21.520 at basketball, but then I realized that they were just 0:11:21.760 --> 0:11:24.160 trying to give everybody a chance with the ball. Actually, 0:11:24.200 --> 0:11:27.480 it's not that that was anything to speak of with 0:11:27.520 --> 0:11:30.200 my knee high socks. But I enjoyed it, and I 0:11:30.200 --> 0:11:33.080 found team sports fun and my parents definitely wished I 0:11:33.160 --> 0:11:37.080 did more team sports. Like at that age, the deal 0:11:37.200 --> 0:11:39.960 kind of was like you're in school and you have 0:11:40.040 --> 0:11:43.200 to have an extra curricular, whether that's you know, band 0:11:43.480 --> 0:11:46.520 or theater or a sport. You had to had something 0:11:46.520 --> 0:11:50.400 else to learn to balance, and it just so happened 0:11:50.400 --> 0:11:52.600 for me and my sisters to be sports. 0:11:52.960 --> 0:11:55.040 So I have a lot of friends that do CrossFit, 0:11:55.160 --> 0:11:57.560 and I feel like the range of gyms can go 0:11:57.640 --> 0:11:59.800 from people who really know what they're doing, which I imagine 0:12:00.080 --> 0:12:04.240 the case where your parents Jim had actual coaches and 0:12:04.280 --> 0:12:07.520 trainers that are experts in weightlifting, and then they're the 0:12:07.559 --> 0:12:10.000 ones where they don't tell people like, hey, your niece 0:12:10.000 --> 0:12:12.760 shouldn't be pasture toes when you're squatting and things like that. 0:12:12.920 --> 0:12:17.160 So it's awesome and validating for the CrossFit world that 0:12:17.200 --> 0:12:19.240 you got your start in one of those gyms. How 0:12:19.280 --> 0:12:23.120 did your coach start coaching there and was the intent 0:12:23.200 --> 0:12:25.079 to do that as a side hustle with a focus 0:12:25.080 --> 0:12:29.080 on real competitive weightlifting or did you sort of help 0:12:29.240 --> 0:12:31.760 inspire him to move over into that side. 0:12:32.480 --> 0:12:35.320 He's been a coach longer than I've been alive. He 0:12:35.360 --> 0:12:39.560 could forget more than I know about weightlifting. Like Steve Fouer, 0:12:39.720 --> 0:12:42.000 he's been in the Chattanooga area and had his own 0:12:42.080 --> 0:12:46.040 gym and been coaching at the college high school D 0:12:46.200 --> 0:12:48.840 one level, Like that's kind of been his deal. He 0:12:49.000 --> 0:12:52.040 was only coming in to supplement and do every once 0:12:52.040 --> 0:12:56.040 in a while something for the CrossFit crowd. It's very 0:12:56.160 --> 0:12:59.800 lucky that I found him and that our coach and 0:13:00.040 --> 0:13:04.240 fleet relationship has gone through now going on eleven years 0:13:04.280 --> 0:13:07.679 in Chattanooga, Tennessee, for the sport of Olympic weightlifting. It's 0:13:07.960 --> 0:13:10.600 like a lot of things had to go right for 0:13:10.640 --> 0:13:12.760 a long time for that to work out well. 0:13:12.800 --> 0:13:15.560 And I also wonder, did you at some point realize 0:13:15.600 --> 0:13:18.200 you had something special and you should seriously pursue this 0:13:18.440 --> 0:13:20.800 or do you think that Steve's ability to see that 0:13:20.840 --> 0:13:22.960 in you was a big deciding factor there. 0:13:23.080 --> 0:13:25.960 People do ask him that, like Olivia walked in the gym, 0:13:26.320 --> 0:13:28.719 did you just know? And He's like, no, I had 0:13:28.760 --> 0:13:31.480 no clue, first of all. Second of all, he asked, 0:13:31.520 --> 0:13:33.240 he goes, do you want any help or do you 0:13:33.400 --> 0:13:35.959 want like pointers? And I go no, I think I'm good, 0:13:36.320 --> 0:13:39.480 And he was like all right then, so oh my god, 0:13:39.559 --> 0:13:43.280 cause at the time I didn't understand I knew how 0:13:43.320 --> 0:13:44.960 to snatch and I knew how to clean a jerk, 0:13:44.960 --> 0:13:47.200 and I was like, boom, I've got it. I don't 0:13:47.200 --> 0:13:49.480 need any help. I could do it like ground overhead, 0:13:49.640 --> 0:13:52.200 like a very crossfitter. Mentality doesn't have to be perfect, 0:13:52.200 --> 0:13:54.360 it just has to get it done. And to a 0:13:54.360 --> 0:13:57.080 lot of years before I realized, okay, I'm not didn't 0:13:57.080 --> 0:14:00.240 crosswit anymore. This is Olympic weightlifting. In order and be 0:14:00.240 --> 0:14:01.640 good at this, you kind of have to be a 0:14:01.640 --> 0:14:05.719 perfectionist and you know, have help and be a coachable athlete. 0:14:06.320 --> 0:14:08.959 And that took a long time for me to realize. 0:14:09.000 --> 0:14:11.480 And I mean, he was just happy to have people 0:14:11.480 --> 0:14:14.439 in the gym, regardless of your ability level, and he's 0:14:14.440 --> 0:14:16.800 happy to take the time to coach and work with you. 0:14:17.200 --> 0:14:19.400 I mean, it just happened that I enjoyed it and 0:14:19.440 --> 0:14:22.080 I wanted to compete, and he's like, awesome, okay. 0:14:21.880 --> 0:14:23.280 And you were very very good at it. 0:14:23.320 --> 0:14:26.280 I will say as a precocious young person myself, I 0:14:26.320 --> 0:14:29.120 think also kids tend not to really understand or grasp 0:14:29.160 --> 0:14:32.000 how successful adults are or what it means when a 0:14:32.040 --> 0:14:34.040 successful adult wants to invest time in you. 0:14:34.200 --> 0:14:35.520 Because you don't know any different. 0:14:35.280 --> 0:14:36.680 You're like, oh, that's cool, and then later in your 0:14:36.720 --> 0:14:39.360 life like, holy shit, this guy's like really great at 0:14:39.360 --> 0:14:41.240 this and spending some time with me to help me 0:14:41.320 --> 0:14:43.800 be great too. So I think a lot of us 0:14:43.800 --> 0:14:47.040 that have sports backgrounds no you know, AAU basketball or 0:14:47.080 --> 0:14:50.360 travel soccer, or Junior Olympics for track, there's a lot 0:14:50.400 --> 0:14:53.360 of outlets to kind of pursue an interest in the sport. 0:14:53.400 --> 0:14:56.120 When you find that you're at a specific level outside 0:14:56.160 --> 0:14:59.560 of just your regular school competitions, what are the opportunities 0:14:59.560 --> 0:15:01.880 as a young person for competitive weightlifting? Where do you 0:15:01.920 --> 0:15:03.720 go if you realize you want to start the track 0:15:03.760 --> 0:15:06.080 towards something like in Olympics. That's what makes it a 0:15:06.120 --> 0:15:10.920 little tough about Olympic weightlifting is people automatically. 0:15:10.360 --> 0:15:13.280 First right off the bat, don't quite understand the difference 0:15:13.280 --> 0:15:16.800 between powerlifting, bodybuilding and weightlifting, and they think it's all 0:15:16.880 --> 0:15:19.320 kind of the same thing. So a good part of 0:15:19.360 --> 0:15:23.160 that is just education. And if you're in kind of 0:15:23.200 --> 0:15:26.240 the school age, then your source is your strength coach 0:15:26.920 --> 0:15:29.280 and they might not even know the Olympic lifts and 0:15:29.320 --> 0:15:32.240 they might still be having absolutely everybody do a power clean. 0:15:32.280 --> 0:15:34.800 There are no squats to full depth. There is no 0:15:35.320 --> 0:15:38.320 full range of motion. So a lot of that starts 0:15:38.360 --> 0:15:42.800 with just you have to find somebody that is in 0:15:42.840 --> 0:15:45.800 a way knows anything about the Olympic lifts, which are 0:15:45.840 --> 0:15:49.160 the snatch and the clean and jerk. Powerlifting is the squat, 0:15:49.200 --> 0:15:53.600 benched deadlift, and bodybuilding is a physique competition, not the same. 0:15:53.920 --> 0:15:54.320 Okay. 0:15:54.400 --> 0:15:57.320 So for the two Olympic lifts, pardon my ignorance, but 0:15:57.800 --> 0:16:00.520 they're separate events, the snatch and the clean. 0:16:00.960 --> 0:16:04.840 Yes, but it's all one competition. So you the competition, 0:16:04.920 --> 0:16:07.960 you weigh in, you have two hours. Competition starts, you 0:16:08.000 --> 0:16:10.720 do the snatch, you do the clean and jerk, competition ends, 0:16:10.880 --> 0:16:12.480 that weight class ends. 0:16:12.720 --> 0:16:14.200 Got it? And they both count? 0:16:14.520 --> 0:16:17.080 Yes, you add them together and that's your total. So 0:16:17.120 --> 0:16:20.960 you can technically have like you like a world championship. 0:16:20.960 --> 0:16:23.240 You walk away with three gold medals, a snatch, a 0:16:23.280 --> 0:16:24.280 clean and jerk in a total. 0:16:24.360 --> 0:16:26.720 Okay, And can you win any of those medals individually 0:16:26.800 --> 0:16:28.640 or they all go together individually? 0:16:28.720 --> 0:16:31.600 Yes? Ah, okay, So you can win the snatch but 0:16:31.640 --> 0:16:32.240 not the others. 0:16:32.280 --> 0:16:33.800 You can also win the clean and jerk but not 0:16:33.840 --> 0:16:35.800 the other or you can win okay, Yeah. 0:16:35.640 --> 0:16:37.680 There's a combination of the three. The only exception is 0:16:37.720 --> 0:16:40.880 a Games event, so it gets a little a Games event, 0:16:40.960 --> 0:16:45.160 there are no individual lift medals, it's only total. So 0:16:45.240 --> 0:16:48.440 the Olympics I walked away with one gold medal versus 0:16:48.440 --> 0:16:50.360 a World Championship walked away with three. 0:16:50.520 --> 0:16:52.440 Okay, a lot of medals. 0:16:53.480 --> 0:16:55.400 Yeah, I'm not quite sure who made the role. I 0:16:55.400 --> 0:16:56.880 wish it was three, could have been. 0:16:57.440 --> 0:17:01.120 But you know, so, what was your first big win 0:17:02.360 --> 0:17:06.520 where it was like, Okay, I'm on track. I need 0:17:06.520 --> 0:17:08.840 to start looking to compete against the most elite people 0:17:08.880 --> 0:17:09.320 in the world. 0:17:09.600 --> 0:17:15.359 Probably my twenty twenty one Junior World Championship. That was 0:17:15.400 --> 0:17:19.200 my first big international in terms of I have fly 0:17:19.520 --> 0:17:24.439 with the team, getting to do have an international competition experience, 0:17:25.880 --> 0:17:29.000 and I ended I had really no expectation for myself. 0:17:29.040 --> 0:17:31.680 I hadn't competed in a while because that was coming 0:17:31.680 --> 0:17:34.600 out of COVID, and it was just kind of like, 0:17:35.520 --> 0:17:38.080 I'm here to compete. This is super cool. I don't 0:17:38.119 --> 0:17:40.439 know what I can do. And then I ended up 0:17:40.480 --> 0:17:44.520 winning and I was like, wow, okay, not everybody's doing 0:17:44.560 --> 0:17:48.159 this all right then. So it was after that and 0:17:48.200 --> 0:17:51.200 then a couple more because Olympic qualifying for twenty twenty 0:17:51.200 --> 0:17:54.720 four started into twenty twenty two, so it was kind 0:17:54.720 --> 0:17:57.800 of within that year I was like competing a lot more, 0:17:57.920 --> 0:18:01.679 qualifying and making senior teams as a your athlete, where 0:18:01.880 --> 0:18:05.760 I started prioritizing lifting a little bit more in my life. 0:18:06.040 --> 0:18:09.480 I had graduated high school in twenty twenty one and 0:18:09.600 --> 0:18:12.560 originally went to the University of Alabama at Birmingham to 0:18:12.760 --> 0:18:15.760 pursue an undergraduate degree in public health, and I spent 0:18:15.840 --> 0:18:18.280 a year there, and in that time I had about 0:18:18.320 --> 0:18:23.600 four competitions, and I was training remotely, so my coach 0:18:23.640 --> 0:18:27.000 was programming me, but he's not in person, and I 0:18:27.040 --> 0:18:28.919 was kind of training by myself, and it was just 0:18:29.040 --> 0:18:32.080 not the best environment for me to set myself up 0:18:32.119 --> 0:18:37.399 to a twenty twenty four potential Olympic hopeful. So that's 0:18:37.880 --> 0:18:41.719 those years are kind of when I started to realize 0:18:41.760 --> 0:18:44.639 how far this could take me, how good I could get, 0:18:45.359 --> 0:18:49.160 and also just the natural progression of being an athlete 0:18:49.160 --> 0:18:52.200 and not just it being a hobby, but the sport 0:18:52.240 --> 0:18:55.240 that I enjoy, and this could be a career for 0:18:55.400 --> 0:18:56.359 a couple of years. 0:18:56.600 --> 0:18:58.439 How did your friends in high school react to you 0:18:58.640 --> 0:18:59.679 pursuing weightlifting. 0:19:00.760 --> 0:19:02.960 They thought it was cool cool for one of my 0:19:03.040 --> 0:19:06.760 junior Worlds, they had to send off. Everybody made posters 0:19:06.760 --> 0:19:10.960 and stuff. I've always been super supported, and I love 0:19:11.040 --> 0:19:13.000 the sport of weightlifting. I love that people are interested. 0:19:13.280 --> 0:19:15.119 Not to say that got any of them into the 0:19:15.160 --> 0:19:18.240 gym to try it with me, not at all. Still 0:19:18.320 --> 0:19:22.119 I don't think I have, but there's a lot of 0:19:22.160 --> 0:19:24.520