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For Olivia Reeves, it was all easy until it wasn't.
Team USA's trump card announced on social media this week that she'd decided to withdraw from the upcoming 2026 World Weightlifting Championships in Ningbo, China.
On Instagram, it seemed out of the blue. For the Olympic Champion, it was months in the making. Olivia was diagnosed with a spinal stress fracture in July after months of managing back pain and burnout.
We sat down with Olivia to discuss how she handles the pressure—and where she's going from here.
Weightlifting House
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Olivia Reeves
Below is a transcript of our conversation with Team USA's Olympic Champion and multi world record holder Olivia Reeves. This interview has been edited for content and clarity.
Weightlifting House (WH): How do you feel about pulling out of Worlds?
Olivia Reeves (OR): “I feel okay. It’s been the reality for a minute now. I knew about my injury, a stress fracture in my spine, in July. At first, I was told I’d need six weeks in a back brace. I thought, ‘Awesome, that’ll give me two months to Worlds. This is going to be nothing.’
When I went back to do more imaging, I was told it was healing, but needed more time. They said they couldn’t clear me until the three-month mark. That’s protocol for this kind of injury. Now, USA Weightlifting has to look at the alternates and replace me.”
WH: Who is taking your slot at 77?
OR: “They’ll ask Mattie Rogers first, because she moved from 77KG to 86KG. But if Mattie doesn’t want to, they’ll ask Katie Witte, who I don’t think wants to cut either. At that point, I believe they’d ask Abbie Cooper.”
WH: How did this injury develop?
OR: “I was hurt longer than I was willing to admit. You don’t just wake up with a stress fracture. At first, my back was getting really sore, but it didn’t shut me down because it progressed so gradually. I still had a full range of motion.
But lifting just wasn’t going well. I went to Nationals but didn’t compete. When I was preparing at the Olympic Training Center, I got up to 103 kilograms during a snatch workout and it was just too much. It didn’t hurt during the lift, but I couldn’t do anything after.
By that point, training had been going badly for so long, and my back was hurting, and I didn’t know why. I hadn’t had a good training day since March. I couldn’t remember the last time I trained without crying, or holding back tears.
Whatever edge I had, I feel like I’ve lost it.”
WH: What numbers did you have in mind for the year, before the injury?
OR: “I don’t know about this year specifically, but eventually, I’d like to snatch 130. It would be the heaviest snatch by an American woman, ever. The most a super-heavyweight has done is 129.”
WH: What else has been troubling you?
OR: “In March, my dog died. It absolutely wrecked me. The way it happened was very traumatic. I’d leave the house saying to myself, ‘I just need to go get through training,’ then I’d train and think, ‘I’m not enjoying this.’
I also had Pan Ams, which went well enough, but not quite how I wanted. That’s about when I started feeling some back pain.”
WH: How did your coach approach these issues with you?
OR: “He noticed something was off. We tried to adjust, taking a day or two off here and there, and adjusting my programming. It wasn’t working. After talking with Steve [Fauer] about it so much, I’ve come to see it as a blessing in disguise, in a way. I’ve needed a break to really heal my back, knees, whatever, to be able to want to actually be in the gym.
The downside is that now I’ve taken a lot of time off, and have to work my way back up to a 160 clean & jerk. That mountain feels like it’s only getting bigger and further away.”
WH: What are you doing day to day right now?
OR: “PT stuff, mainly core, and a little bit of weights with kettlebells or dumbbells. I walk about three miles, four or five times a week. A little bit of yoga, an actual restorative kind, with no deep twists or back bends, to keep me busy.”
WH: You don’t sound thrilled.
OR: “I’m not. The first two weeks I spent in the brace were the worst. I was counting the hours. Training has always been how I feel productive. How do I even begin to find that somewhere else, especially when I’m being told I have to do less?
It’s been challenging to feel like I’ve had a productive day, or week, or a sense of accomplishment without it being tied to lifting. It’s a bit of an identity crisis, but that’s fine. I can go through a rebrand. I’m grateful to have set up other things for myself. I’m still in school, and I’ve started fostering dogs and working on the house I bought.
I’ve found ways to fill my day that are productive, but it’s nothing like being exhausted from 5x5 back squats. There’s nothing like that.”
WH: Do the expectations people have for you weigh on you?
OR: “I didn’t think so, but then I started talking to people. A lot of conversations end up being about me being ‘the favorite.’ I don’t want to mention anyone by name, but somebody said, ‘You’re Olivia Reeves, you’ll be fine.’ And it makes me think, ‘Hey, there are other weightlifters on Team USA.’ What I did in Paris does not guarantee anything in LA.
People have suggested I just go to China and lift in the C group or whatever. But why? If I have to lower my total that much, why send me when someone else could go who can put in 100%? I’m not looking to go to Worlds just to do 100/130. Maybe I’m too prideful for that, but I know what I’m capable of.
Pressure comes with the territory. I don’t resent it, but I can feel it. And I put plenty on myself to begin with. This time around, I really wanted to go for the Best Lifter slot. It’s still a goal I think about often.
I’ve framed it this way: I’ve gone to the Olympics and gotten the gold medal. How can I make this more of a challenge? Be the Best Lifter.”
WH: How are you feeling about the LA quad with all this in mind?
OR: “I still feel optimistic about it. Once the fracture heals, it shouldn’t come back. I can still do five competitions in the next year and a half and have a good, consistent set of totals. That’s how I like to compete anyway.”
WH: What do you think of the Worlds roster in your class?
OR: “I recognized one of the Chinese girls from Worlds ‘24. She out-snatched me but didn’t have a great clean & jerk. But I haven’t seen her lift since then, I don’t recognize the other Chinese athlete, and there’s no North Korean at 77. If I’d been in good shape, I think it would have been a great day.
It’s a shame. But there will be others.”
WH: Were you ever nervous to compete against China or North Korea?
OR: “Nervous? No. You could replace China and North Korea with Ecuador and Colombia, or any other country, and the stakes don’t change. It’s an athlete who wants the same medal as me. China and North Korea’s reputations carry weight, but backstage, everyone is just an athlete.”
WH: How do you think Team USA is going to do at Worlds this year?
OR: “We’re going to do well. I’m really excited to watch Hampton Morris, he’s been clean & jerking out the wazoo. Ella Nicholson has put on the weight to fill out at 86. Kolbi Ferguson and Aaron Williams were going lift-for-lift at camp.
I think Chealsea Enemor definitely has potential. She just needs a few years to refine her movement patterns. I don’t see why she wouldn’t be doing 130/160 at least.”
WH: Who on Team USA has a perspective on weightlifting you’ve learned from?
OR: “You know what’s funny? We don’t talk about weightlifting that much. I couldn’t tell you how anyone else thinks about the sport, or what cues they use. We’ll discuss what we’re working on, but that’s about it.”
WH: Who has the best vibes in the training hall?
OR: “I love Emily Campbell. Team GB is great, but I always look for Emily.”
WH: How often are you drug tested?
OR: “I’ve been tested three times since June. There’s USADA and the ITA, and they have different rules. You have to submit your whereabouts several times per week, and testers can show up at any point within a 60-minute window. They don’t call or ask where you are. It’s actually a problem if you live in gated communities or dorms, since they can’t get to you easily.
I’ve been drug tested for eight hours straight in Qatar. Even though it was 24 hours before my session, it counted as out-of-competition testing, but I was in the middle of water loading. I was like, ‘Are you kidding me?’ My sample was too diluted. They sat with me for eight hours until I provided five separate samples they could get a reading from.”
WH: What’s been your favorite and least favorite traveling experiences?
OR: “Bariloche, Argentina, was really cool. And I did a Junior Worlds in Greece, which was awesome, since we stayed at a resort. Norway was great too. I really like when the hotel, venue, and training hall are within walking distance.
There have been competitions where you need to take a taxi or bus to the venue, and it takes 45 minutes just to get there. Nobody wants to watch their teammates compete because they’d be stuck on the bus for an hour, if it even arrived on time. Worlds ‘22 in Colombia was like that.”
WH: Do you get nervous trying for a new PR?
OR: “It depends. Sometimes, you just know before you even try it. When I snatched 125 at the Arnold this year, they could have put on 126 and it wouldn’t have made a difference. I don’t think about the most weight I’ve lifted previously. If I feel good, I’m going to make the lift, whatever it is.”
WH: What’s the rationale behind your approach to competition attempts?
OR: “It depends on how my training has gone. Usually Steve and I have an idea of where we want to end up on the platform. If, say, I feel super comfortable snatching 110 and not 115, for whatever reason, we know we can still plan for 120 on stage.
I think people get too hung up on openers, or opening as heavy as possible. We try to think more about where we want to finish.”
WH: Do weights feel different in training compared to competition?
OR: “In training, for sure. I’ve doubled 115 in the snatch, and done 120-122 at least five or six times, but don’t touch 120 as often, even though I can do more. Usually the pattern will go 114, 115, 117, 118, so I can position to jump above 120 and challenge myself.”
WH: Do you have any weightlifting superstitions?
OR: “Kind of. I think it doesn’t always make sense to tie your PR. What’s the difference between adding another kilo? But specific weights can definitely get in your head. I’ve snatched 110 for a set of five, but as my injury was progressing I started missing singles. It made me think, ‘What is wrong with me?’ I couldn’t be happy ending the day with 110.”
WH: Do you and your coach still prioritize technique?
OR: “Sort of. We’ve done a lot of work on jumping back, and it’s gotten a lot better. Sometimes he’ll have me do entire workouts where there’s a strip of floor matting behind my heels, physically preventing me from jumping back, and stand a PVC pipe up right in front of my bar, so I couldn’t loop it forward.
I’m good at figuring out how to make lifts despite technical issues. It’s a good quality to have in competition, but not while you’re trying to fix mistakes in the gym. This one time, Steve told me, ‘I want you to hit your knees with the bar as you pull,’ even though that’s not what you want. So I did, and he was like, ‘Now, make yourself get your legs straight.’ He was showing me I have full control over what happens when the bar leaves the ground, for better and worse.”
WH: What was the single worst training day you’ve had?
OR: “I don’t recall an exact day, but it was along the lines of only doing 110 in the snatch and 137 in the clean & jerk. I tried 144 and clarked it. It was one of those weeks. And then ‘those weeks’ kept happening. I’d struggle at 146, then 144, then a few weeks later I’m clarking 140.
It’s like, ‘Somebody sedate me please. This is not fun.’ It would infuriate me. A year ago, even two months ago, I was attempting 160. Now I’m clarking 140?”
WH: Other than pain, what tips you off that a workout isn’t going right?
OR: “I can tell. On snatches, If I start rocking back on my heels when I catch, or jumping backward, or I don’t catch it and stand up smoothly. There shouldn’t be any bouncing in the snatch. I look for my balance in the catch more than anything. One time, in Bulgaria for the European Championships (Team USA were guest athletes), I walked my last snatch at 115 backwards on the platform. I’d never done that before.
If I rock back in the clean, something went a little haywire. If it happens at, like, 150-160, I actually worry less. It’s max effort, and I’m strong enough to save it. But if these mistakes start coming out early, I know it’ll hold me back later.”
WH: How do you handle those days?
OR: “After a few bad lifts, I’ll usually drop back down in weight and work back up, taking different jumps than I did the first time. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.”
WH: What advice would you give to someone who is in your exact predicament?
OR: “Have a little compassion for yourself. This sport is hard. Being an elite athlete is hard. It might also be helpful to realize this isn’t some super unique circumstance—everybody gets injured at some point. There’s no need to beat yourself up over an injury you didn’t control.
I’ve used exercises like this in the past, like writing myself a letter. Whether I take my own advice is another matter.”
WH: Is it hard to believe in your own affirmations?
OR: “Yes, but then I look at other people who have gone through what I’m going through. I look at Mattie, who has talked to me a bit about her own injury. I look at Mary Theisen-Lappen, and how long she and Mattie have been competing. They’re still setting PRs. They’ve bounced back.
I’m pretty confident this isn’t it for me. There’s no way I’ve cleaned 160 and not jerked it. There’s no way that’s all I’ll ever do.”
WH: Do you see yourself on the podium in LA?
OR: “Yes.”
