Friday, September 22, 2000
Teen weightlifter gets bronze medal
By ALAN ROBINSON
AP Sports Writer
SYDNEY, Australia — Cheryl Haworth didn't have to do her best to get a bronze medal in the Olympics. She just did what she had to do.
Haworth, not in position for a gold or silver medal, played it safe and didn't try to lift more than the 595 pounds she needed Friday for the bronze medal in 165 pounds-plus women's weightlifting.
Haworth's medal was the second for the United States in weightlifting since 1984, both in these games.
Tara Nott, among those rooting Haworth on, initially took the silver at 105 pounds on Sunday, then was awarded the gold Friday when Bulgaria's Izabela Dragneva was stripped of the medal for using a banned drug.
Haworth made all six or her lifts, but didn't push beyond her previous best of 3191/2 pounds in the clean and jerk because it wasn't necessary.
“I listened to my coach (Michael Cohen). He said to lift 145 (kg) for the bronze and lock it in and that's what I did,” said Haworth, the Georgia schoolgirl who got into lifting to build up her muscles for softball. “I'm certain I could have done more, but the bronze medal was more important.”
Haworth lifted an American-record 2751/2 pounds in the snatch, but still was 22 pounds off the lead going into the clean and jerk.
“We knew that, coming out of the snatch, there wasn't much chance to catch the top two,” Cohen said. “We had to have a medal. We had to have a U.S. lifter on that podium. We weren't going to jeopardize that medal.”
Ding Meiyuan of China broke world records in the snatch, the clean and jerk and total lift to win the gold medal, totaling 6611/4 pounds to edge 19-year-old Agata Wrobel of Poland by 11 pounds. Haworth finished 66 pounds behind and thus couldn't have moved up even if she had substantially increased her weight in the clean and jerk.
The entire U.S. lifting team was on hand to cheer on the 5-foot-9, 300-pound Haworth, constantly shouting her nickname of “Fun.”
“Obviously, we're very excited to win two medals,” Cohen said. “Tara is a leader and an outstanding athlete. But while I'm happy for Tara, I'm concerned about the problems in our sport.”
Haworth was the last of the four U.S. women to lift in Sydney; neither 105-pounder Robin Goad nor 165-pounder Cara Heads-Lane got a medal.
That Haworth is at the Olympics at such a relatively young age is remarkable in itself. Like Nott, she didn't start lifting until after the 1996 Atlanta Games, yet already holds all American records.
“I'm excited about coming back in 2004,” Haworth said.
The Ding-Wrobel-Haworth finish was the same as in the world championships last year.
Ding and Wrobel took turns breaking Chinese lifter Wang Yanmei's previous world record of 3541/2 pounds in the clean and jerk before Ding hit her final lift of 3633/4 pounds and Wrobel missed her lift — for the gold medal — of 3733/4 pounds.
“If she had made it that, I would have had a lot of regret,” Ding said.
Wrobel had never before lifted such a weight, but said, “It was for the gold medal. I had to try it.”
Ding, whose coach her ear lobes between lifts for encouragement, lifted a total that broke Wrobel's record of 6391/4 pounds set July 8 in Prague.
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