Katherine Nye has been sensational the last several years and is all but confirmed to represent the United States at the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan this summer.
In the past year alone, the 21 year old Nye became the youngest American woman ever to sweep gold at the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) 2019 World Weightlifting Championships in the -71kg weight class, was named to Forbes 30 under 30 list, and has been crushing a string of new personal records in training.
And she just did so again in a big way. Check out Nye hit an absolutely huge 150kg/330lb clean off blocks below from a post on her Instagram page:
“I don’t even know how I did this.”
Despite her own comments in the post, we would venture that she was able to do this because she is currently one of the most dominant female athletes in the sport. After all, she currently holds every American weightlifting record in the -71kg class; snatch (112kg/247lb), clean & jerk (137kg/302lb), and total (248kg/548lb). That 112kg/247lb snatch is also a junior world record.
According to an AMA (ask-me-anything) that Nye did on reddit alongside twenty-three other athletes in a weekly series heading into the 2020 Olympic Games, she is currently putting on weight to move up to the -76kg class.
[Related: Learn everything about Katherine Nye’s diet from our interview]
The official announcement of who will represent Team USA will be made by the IWF after the Olympic qualification period is completed on April 30th. The team will consist of the eight highest ranking weightlifters according to IWF’s Absolute Rankings and Nye is almost assuredly going to appear on that list.
If Nye’s training continues enabling her to hit big PRs, with five months still to go before the Olympic Games kick off on July 24th, there is a strong likelihood that she could stand on the podium.
Editor’s Note: BarBend is the Official Media Partner of USA Weightlifting. The two organizations maintain editorial independence unless otherwise specified on partner content.
Feature image from Katherine Nye’s Instagram page: @katherineenye
