PARIS (AP) — Hampton Morris does not have a driver’s license. He does have an Olympic bronze medal.
The 20-year-old who trains in his garage at home in Marietta, Georgia, on Wednesday became the first U.S. men’s weightlifter to take home a medal of any color at the Games in four decades. Narrowly missing out on a world record that would have gotten him silver, Morris followed Mario Martinez and Guy Carlton from Los Angeles in 1984 as the most recent American men to medal at the Olympics.
“It’s amazing that I’m able to leave that kind of mark in the sport,” Morris said after finishing third in the men’s 61-kilogram division. “I’m just in disbelief.”
Li Fabin of China defended his Olympic weightlifting title after going in as the overwhelming favorite to repeat. The 31-year-old set a Games snatch record by lifting 143 kilograms (315 pounds) on his third and final attempt, paving the way for gold when he got to 167 kilograms (368 pounds) in the clean and jerk for a score of 310.
“It was a smooth competition,” Li said through an interpreter. “I followed the instructions from my team, and I smoothly won the gold medal.”
Li became the first weightlifter with back-to-back Olympic titles since Naim Suleymanoglu of Turkey won three in a row from 1988-96. Theerapong Silachai of Thailand got the silver for medal at 303.
China defended another gold medal hours later when Hou Zhihui won the women’s 49-kilogram division. Hou set an Olympic clean and jerk record at 117 kilograms on her third and final attempt to pass Mihaela Cambei of Romania by one point, 206-205.
Cambei earned silver in her country’s return to the Games following its ban from Tokyo in 2021 for past doping cases, and Thailand’s Surodchana Khambao was at 200 for bronze. American Jourdan Delacruz was fifth.
Morris, who is coached by his father, Tripp, got emotional with the bronze medal hanging around his neck when he began talking about what his mother, Anne Marie, and his sister, Etta, give up so he can lift at such a high level. His grandmother Debbie drives him to physical therapy every week.
“I don’t have anywhere else to go, so I never had any real need to get my driver’s license,” Morris said. “I’m planning to get it very soon. I’ve pretty much learned how to drive. I just haven’t taken the test yet.”
That is a short-term goal. Doing better in Los Angeles in 2028 — probably moving up a weight class next time — is for down the line.
Until now, his priority was getting on the podium in Paris, something that was threatened when he slipped on his first clean and jerk. USA Gymnastics senior director of sport performance Mike Gattone, standing nearby, said, “That’s the third guy I’ve seen slip on that platform.”
Morris moved the bar forward for his second attempt and was successful on the 172 kilogram (379 pound) lift that put him in medal position at 298. Locked into a medal, he went for a clean and jerk world record attempt of 178 kilograms (392 pounds) and came up just short of completing it.
“I knew I had it in me,” said Morris, the youngest U.S. weightlifter at the Olympics since Cheryl Haworth in 2000. “Any other day, I would definitely have a shot at making it. Today I had a shot of making it.”
Four-time Olympic medalist Eko Yuli Irawan of Indonesia, the oldest weightlifter in the category at age 35, injured his right hip or leg on his unsuccessful final lift. He limped off with assistance after failing to make a lift in the clean and jerk, preventing him from extending his lead as his country’s most decorated Olympian.
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