Wes Kitts Finishes in Eighth Place in Paris

PARIS - Wes Kitts finished in eighth place in the men’s 102 kg session at Paris 2024 on Saturday morning. The oldest lifter in his session, 34, Kitts went 3-for-6 and hit 172/202/374. This was Kitts’ second Olympic Games, and the American also finished in eighth place in the 109 kg session at Tokyo 2020.

China’s Huanhua Liu earned the gold medal by lifting 186/220/406. Uzbekistan’s Akbar Djuraev and Yauheni Tsikhantsou of the pre-approved list of athletes from Russia and Belarus took silver and bronze, respectively lifting 404 kg and 402 kg.

Kitts took the platform to attempt 167 kg and nailed his opening snatch. He then lifted 172 kg on his second snatch before loading 177 kg onto the barbell. Having competed at both 102 and 109 kg, Kitts holds the American record snatch for both weight classes at 177 kg. He hit the weight in Tokyo 2020 but couldn’t complete it in Paris. Kitts came out of the snatch portion of the competition in ninth place.

With two weightlifters bombing out in the snatch and one suffering an injury, only ten went on to compete in the clean & jerk. Kitts stepped up to attempt an opening weight of 202 kg, and completed it successfully. He then made an aggressive raise of eight kilos to 210 kg for his second attempt. This would be one kilogram less than his highest clean & jerk at 102 kg, and he couldn’t complete the clean. He kept the third attempt at 210 kg, and worked to finish the clean but came short of finishing the jerk. Kitts kept the successful opening clean & jerk of 202 kg.

Olivia Reeves and Hampton Morris have earned a gold and bronze medal this week, and Team USA has a chance at one more medal. Mary Theisen-Lappen will wrap up Paris 2024 for the American weightlifters in the +81 kg session at 5:30 a.m. EST on Sunday morning.