Campbell wins historic second weightlifting medal

Weightlifting 11 Aug 24

Emily Campbell broke her own British record to claim weightlifting bronze in the women’s +81kg category.

The 30-year-old made history at Tokyo 2020 as the first British woman to claim an Olympic weightlifting medal and she has only added to her legend status in Paris.

Campbell finished third behind world record holder Li Wenwen of China and South Korea’s Park Hye-jeong.

The Nottingham native had to wait until the final day of Paris 2024 to become a two-time Olympian and was the third-last competitor to begin her competition at South Paris Arena.

"Today was a lot tougher than it was in Tokyo," she said. "The standard was so, so high today and I really had to pull it out of the bag.

"This road has been really long. In Tokyo, I was new to the sport, I was enjoying things and everything was great. It was a bonus medal.

"But this one really came from the heart. We’ve had a tough year building up, it took 18 months really, but we pulled it out at the right time.

"I could not be more elated with my performance. It was actually a PB performance, so you can’t really complain when you do that."

Campbell put on a show, both with her performance and her appearance, with blue, red and white space buns and the Olympic Rings plaited into the back of her hair.

As she finished her final lift, Campbell celebrated her second Olympic medal with a cartwheel to the delight of the crowd.

Opening up, she successfully completed all three snatch attempts, ending with 126kg to sit third going into the clean and jerk and better her best effort from Tokyo when she claimed silver.

Campbell then surpassed her best clean-and-jerk attempt from the 2020 Games with her first attempt in the French capital, making 162kg to keep the pressure on Park with Li way out in front.

Having to make up the gap on the South Korean, Campbell went for broke but failed at both 169 and 174kg to finish in third with a national record of 288kg.

Campbell, who was roared on by a strong contingent of friends and family inside the arena, ended 11 kilograms behind Park, with Li out in front with a combined weight of 309kg.

She joins Launceston Elliot and Louis Martin as only the third British person to claim two weightlifting medals at the Olympic Games.

Speaking about her hair, she said: "I had so much fun getting ready for this. Doing my hair, doing my makeup, everything.

"I just knew I was in really good shape and I just wanted to give it my all. I’m just so glad I got rewarded.

"It took a good three hours yesterday. We attached the rings today, so it was a surprise element.

"All the media has been talking about my hair in the lead-up to this, so I had to come out with a showstopper."

Sportsbeat 2024

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