On Wednesday, Hampton Morris turned the primary American male to win an Olympic medal in weightlifting in 40 years. And he did so whereas coaching in a storage at his household’s Georgia residence.
Morris, 20, captured the bronze medal within the 61kg (134 lbs) occasion by hoisting a mixed weight of 298 kg (657 kilos) to realize a podium end on the Paris Olympics. Whereas American ladies had received weightlifting medals up to now two Video games, a male U.S. weightlifter had not tasted Olympic glory since Mario Martinez (silver) and Man Carlton (bronze) on the 1984 Los Angeles Video games.
“It is wonderful that I can go away that sort of mark within the sport,” Morris stated of ending Group USA’s 40-year drought by way of Fox 5 Atlanta. “I am simply in disbelief.”
After his history-making feat, Morris revealed he by no means educated at a correct facility or acquired Olympic-level teaching. As a substitute, he continues to depend on his father, Tripp, to coach him and his grandmother, Debbie, to drive him to bodily remedy each week. The 20-year-old Georgia native doesn’t personal a driver’s license as a result of he lives a comparatively low-key life-style.
“I haven’t got wherever else to go, so I by no means had any actual must get my driver’s license,” he stated.
Morris received emotional, thanking his mom, Anne Marie, and his sister, Etta, for making sacrifices and supporting him in his journey to the Olympiad. The younger weightlifter revealed that his household transformed a three-car storage right into a health club when he turned 14 so he may pursue his athletic desires.
Six years later, these sacrifices paid off. However Morris — the youngest U.S. weightlifter on the Olympics since Cheryl Haworth in 2000 — is simply getting began and has set his sights on one other medal when the Video games return to Los Angeles in 2028.
“This complete expertise has been so unbelievable. Now all I can hope for is that I can do even higher in L.A. in 4 years,” he concluded.
