BREAKING: Kate Nye Wins Olympic Silver Medal, Best U.S. Result in 21 Years

Photo credit: Stephen Galvan / International Weightlifting Federation

BREAKING: Kate Nye Wins Olympic Silver, Best U.S. Result in 21 Years

TOKYO (Aug. 1, 2021) – Kate Nye (76kg; Oakland Township, Mich.; Team USA/Power & Grace Performance) won the women’s 76kg silver medal Sunday night with a 249kg total, marking

the best result by a U.S. weightlifter in 21 years and first medal for USA Weightlifting at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020.

Ecuador's Neisi Dajomes won gold with a 263kg total to become the first female athlete from her country - in any sport - to win an Olympic medal, while Mexico's Aremi Fuentes took bronze with 245kg.

Nye’s silver is the fourth Olympic medal by a U.S. woman since women’s weightlifting joined the Olympic program in 2000, and the first silver. It is also the U.S.' first Olympic medal in women's light heavyweight.

The other U.S. women to medal on the Olympic stage include Tara Nott (2000 gold), Cheryl Haworth (2000 bronze) and Sarah Robles (2016 bronze).

Making her Olympic debut in the Tokyo International Forum, the 22-year-old Nye made her first two Snatch attempts of 108kg and 111kg, with the latter setting an American record. The previous American record of 109kg was set by Shacasia Johnson in December 2019.

Nye appeared to have a successful third Snatch, with the referees initially ruling her 114kg attempt a good lift, but it was later overturned by the jury for Nye letting go of the weight while it was still above her shoulders.

The Oakland Township, Michigan, native had a successful first Clean and Jerk attempt at 133kg and followed that up with a made second attempt of 138kg. Nye missed her third and final attempt - 148kg - but her total of 259kg broke the American record of 245kg that 2016 Olympian Jenny Arthur set in September 2018.

Nye is used to etching her name in the history book by now. At 20 years old, Nye became the youngest U.S. women’s world champion when she won the senior title at the 2019 IWF World Championships in Pattaya, Thailand, and just the fifth U.S. woman to win the event. She also won the junior world title earlier that year, her final year of junior eligibility. Nye then became the first American to be named IWF Lifter of the Year.

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