Mattie Rogers Becomes First American To Medal At Four Consecutive Worlds In 27 Years

TASHKENT, Uzbekistan – Entering the 2021 IWF World Championships, Mattie Rogers (76kg; Geneva, Fla.) was already the most decorated American in the Olympic era of women’s weightlifting. The 26-year-old blew that stat out of the water by an exhausting margin on Tuesday night at Tashkent’s Uzbekistan Sport Complex.

Rogers earned silver medals in the women’s 76kg clean and jerk and total, plus bronze in the snatch, to stand on the podium at a fourth consecutive world championships.

Continuing her medal streak was Rogers’ primary driving factor in competing at worlds this year.

In doing so, Rogers becomes the first American to medal at four senior world championships in a row in 27 years since Robin Byrd-Goad (1987-1989, 1991-1994, 1998) and is the first American to medal at more than three world championships in the Olympic era of women’s weightlifting. Women’s weightlifting was added to the Olympic program in 2000 (Cheryl Haworth medaled in 1999, 2002, 2005). Women have been competing at worlds since 1987, however, and Rogers is only the third U.S. woman to medal at four consecutive worlds in that 34-year history.

Rogers’ second medal of the day marked the 90th earned by a U.S. woman in worlds history.

Rogers went four for six on Tuesday, making snatch attempts of 104 and 107kg look easy before missing her third attempt at 110, and missing her opening clean and jerk at 132kg before making it on the second attempt and then fighting hard, as she is known, to finish with a 136kg. Her results of 107, 136 and 243kg in the total mark in-person competition personal records at this body weight, and tie the exact PRs she hit at the 2020 Online North American Open Finals last December.

Min Ji Lee of Korea won gold at her senior worlds debut with a 244kg total, while 2021 junior world champion Iana Sotieva took bronze (242kg) for the Russian Weightlifting Federation. The 19-year-old also won the snatch (112kg), while Lee won the clean and jerk (139kg). Brazil’s Laura Nascimento Amaro, who competed in skeleton at the Winter Youth Olympic Games in 2016, was second in the snatch (108kg) and Korea’s Suhyeon Kim third in the clean and jerk (134kg).

This is the third weight category at which Rogers has medaled in her four worlds appearances, following her 2017 medals (two silvers, one bronze) at 69kg, and 2018 (bronze) and 2019 (two silvers, one bronze) medals at 71kg.

Now with 10 world medals, Rogers has double the number of any other American in the Olympic era of women’s weightlifting (Haworth’s five). She has also moved up from a tie for fourth place to sit solely in third on the list of most decorated U.S. women in worlds history.

This world championships caps a stellar 2021 campaign by Rogers, following her win at the rescheduled 2020 Pan American Championship in April (81kg), USA Weightlifting National Championships victory in July (81kg), sixth-place finish at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 in August (87kg), 2021 Pan American Championship runner-up finish in November (76kg) and North American Open Finals title (81kg) earlier in December. She was also crowned Best Female Lifter at both the USA Weightlifting National Championships and North American Open Finals.