European Championships Up Next for Team USA

COLORADO SPRINGS - Fifteen Team USA athletes will head to Sofia, Bulgaria, over the next week to compete in the European Weightlifting Championships, a Paris 2024 qualifying meet. The delegation includes multiple athletes who rank top-10 in Olympic Qualifying, including Hampton Morris and Olivia Reeves, the United States’ highest-ranked male and female lifters. Multiple Tokyo 2020 Olympians will compete too in: CJ Cummings, Wes Kits, Mattie Rogers, Kate Vibert and Caine Wilkes. Notably, Vibert will compete in the 81 kg class, the same class as Rogers, after previously competing as a 71 kg since the 2022 IWF World Championships. Vibert announced the decision in late January.

Notable absences from the trip include Jourdan Delacruz and Sarah Robles. Delacruz had long planned to train through the continental championships and give her body rest, while Robles is also training through and aiming for a big performance at the IWF World Cup in April.

The U.S. was approved to participate in the European Championships in December due to acknowledged safety and logistical challenges related to the Pan-American Championships in Caracas, Venezuela. Team USA athletes are not eligible to win medals at the European Championships, but their results will count toward Olympic qualifying rankings.

Weight Categories:

Women: 45 kg, 49 kg, 55 kg, 59 kg, 64 kg, 71 kg, 76 kg, 81 kg, 87 kg, +87 kg

Men: 55 kg, 61 kg, 67 kg, 73 kg, 81 kg, 89 kg, 96 kg, 102 kg, 109 kg, +109 kg

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Team USA’s last major tournament was the IWF Grand Prix II in Doha, Qatar. Through 10 days of competition, Hampton Morris (61 kg) set American senior and junior records in the clean & jerk and total, Olivia Reeves and Kate Vibert battled in a 71 kg session that ended with Vibert setting a five kg total personal record and Reeves shattering seven world records, and Mary Theisen-Lappen leapt into fifth on the +81kg Olympic Qualifying Rankings after lifting a personal snatch record and tying her clean & jerk American record.