UTC’s Olivia Reeves Selected To U.S. Olympic Weightlifting Team

University of Tennessee at Chattanooga student Olivia Reeves has been announced as one of the five athletes representing USA Weightlifting during this summer’s Paris Olympic Games.

The announcement took place Friday in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Click here for the USA Weightlifting announcement.

Ms. Reeves, who competes at 71 kg, is joined on the U.S. squad by Jourdan Delacruz (49 kg), Wes Kitts (102 kg), Hampton Morris (61 kg) and Mary Theisen-Lappen (+81 kg). The Olympic weightlifting competition will take place Aug. 7-11 at the South Paris Arena.

Ms. Reeves, a senior majoring in sociology, 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.”

At the final Olympic qualifying event in Phuket, Thailand, in April, the Hixson native won three gold medals while setting a trio of American records (118 kg snatch, 150 kg clean and jerk, 268 kg total).

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,’” Ms. Reeves recently said in an on-campus interview, “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.”

Ms. 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.

To learn more about Ms. Reeves’ journey to the U.S. Olympic team, visit UTC News.