When Olivia Reeves began weightlifting at 12 years old, she didn’t know just how far the sport would take her.
“The goal is always just the next competition,” Reeves said. “Do better at the next one, do better than I did at the last one kind of deal.”
She continued up the competition ladder, literally adding on more weight. Now, at 21 years old, she has reached the pinnacle of her sport: Olympic status.
On Friday, May 24, Reeves—a senior sociology major at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga—was announced as a member of the United States Olympic weightlifting team. The native of Hixson, Tennessee, will be representing the U.S. at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Given her Olympian status, it’s not surprising that Reeves has achieved some remarkable feats. According to a BarBend article, “Reeves is the second-strongest woman in the world in her weight class.” A USA Weightlifting article called her, “one of this generation’s greatest weightlifters.”
Currently, Reeves’ best snatch is 118 kg (260 pounds) and her best clean and jerk is 150 kg (331 pounds), personal records she set at her last qualifier competition in Thailand in April—where she won gold over China and North Korea.
It was in Thailand that Reeves also beat all three world record holders in the women’s 71 kg weight class. Although all she had to do to qualify was weigh in, she decided to compete anyway.
“I’m not going to travel all the way to Thailand and not compete,” she said. “Being the last qualifier versus North Korea and China, I think it was good for me to compete to set the pace for the Olympics momentum of what I want to happen in Paris—just to see how heavy I can go.”
Reeves has competed and medaled in weightlifting competitions around the world. Last December, she broke seven world records in a competition in Qatar.
She is looking to become the first UTC currently-enrolled student to participate in the Olympic Games—and is believed to be the first student in the University’s 138-year history to be selected for an Olympic team—something she said feels “monumental.”
Several athletes with UTC ties have gone to the Olympics.
- Rower Dan Beery, a 2000 graduate and former member of the UTC Crew team, won Olympic gold as a member of the U.S. Men’s Eights team in the 2004 Games in Athens, Greece.
- Beery’s coach at UTC, Robert Espeseth, won the bronze medal in the Men’s Pair event in the 1984 Games in Los Angeles.
- Wrestler Charlie Heard, a three-time All-American for the Mocs and national runner-up at 118 pounds at the 1983 NCAA Division I National Championship, was an alternate for the Olympics both in 1984 (Los Angeles) and 1988 (Seoul, Korea).
Reeves will arrive in Paris on July 18, where she will spend nearly a month as the competitions take place. She will compete at 7:30 p.m. Paris time (1:30 p.m. in Chattanooga) on Friday, Aug. 9.
During her time there, she plans to stay busy with training, exploring the Olympic Village, watching as many sporting events as she can and making friends.
As far as the competition goes, her “hands get sweaty thinking about it”—but she has a game plan.
“It’s such a big thing and I think it’s really easy to get caught up in people’s predictions,” she said. “People’s ‘You’re going to do awesome,’ or ‘You can medal,’ is a lot to put on an athlete.
“Trying not to get caught up in that is my goal.”
Steve Fauer, Reeves’s coach, shares the same sentiment.
Fauer, the owner of the Tennessee Speed and Strength gym for 27 years, has coached Reeves since she began weightlifting in 2015. He will be accompanying her to Paris.
For him, the Olympics is just another stepping stone in Reeves’s career, and Fauer is along for the ride.
“It’s not about beating somebody,” Fauer said. “It’s about doing good, the best that she can do. If we win, we win. We’d like to win, but it’s not going to put her in a negative spiral if we don’t.
“She has it all in perspective; as a result, she’s been able to ride this whole thing out. For a coach, she has been the athlete we all want.”
Don’t get him wrong. He said Reeves is a favorite to earn an Olympic medal, and Fauer praises her relentless dedication in seeing it through.
“It’s satisfying to me because I was able to do right by her,” he said. “She could do it. It was there for her to do it. But you wonder if you’re the right person for the job because you don’t want to be the reason why somebody doesn’t reach their full potential.”
According to Reeves, Fauer’s coaching is clearly effective.
“My mindset is to keep doing what I’m doing, keep training,” she said. “What I’m doing is working; don’t change anything.”
After the Olympics, Reeves will return to UTC for her last semester before she graduates in December. She said she has already gotten some praise around campus, usually from people she doesn’t know.
“Some people will say, ‘Are you Olivia Reeves, the weightlifter?’” she said.
The soft-spoken athlete isn’t one to boast about her accomplishments at school, but it also hasn’t fully sunk in yet that she will be an Olympian.
“It’s weird because when I think of an Olympian or know people who are Olympians, I’m like, ‘Wow, they seem really cool,’” she said, “and I’m like, ‘Wait a minute, I’m also an Olympian now.’ I’m recognizing that it is becoming a part of my identity.
“It’s exciting and I’m coming to the realization that it’s actually happening. It’s real.”
(photo credit: UTC/Angela Foster)