On September 25th, the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) approved the creation of two new youth weight categories for women: 75KG (165lb) and 75+KG (over 165lb). Yesterday, the IWF formally acknowledged records in the categories based on back dating youth aged female athletes in these weight categories.
In an buildup that has been sixteen years in the making, American Cheryl Haworth has been awarded the Youth World Record in the woman’s 75+KG snatch. At the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Australia, then 17 year old Haworth snatched the record of 125KG (275lb) as she went on to win a bronze medal in her first Olympic games, which also happened to be the first Olympic Games to include Woman’s Weightlifting events. In the previous 16 years, no youth aged woman has surpassed Haworth’s accomplishment, and the IWF has updated her name on their list of World Records.
Haworth, a native of Savannah, Georgia, is one of the most decorated female athletes in the history of USA Weightlifting (USAW). She is a three time Olympic team member, and won eleven straight USAW Senior National Championships from 1998 – 2008. In her career, she also won the 1999 Pan American Games, 2001 Goodwill Games, and the World Junior Championships in 2001 and 2002.
After her career finished, Haworth was the subject of the 2012 documentary entitled Strong! It documented Haworth’s training and competition at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. In 2015 she became the most recent female athlete to be inducted into the USAW Hall of Fame.
Haworth’s becomes the second American to set a world record in as many years; in 2016 the world saw CJ Cummings set a youth record in the Clean and Jerk, which he currently owns with 182KG (400lb) in the 69KG category.
The last female American weightlifter to set a world record was Robin Byrd-Goad, who set a Senior World Record Snatch of 78KG (172lb) in 1994 in the 50KG category.
Featured image: @haworthweightlifting on Instagram