The headline from the June 5, 2021, Times Free Press said this: “Notre Dame grad Olivia Reeves could lift Olympic gold in 2024.”
The article on the then-recent high school graduate talked about her weightlifting medals stuffed in a size 9 shoebox, her recent golds in the International Federation Junior World Championships and how the first thing she did the day after returning from the championships in Uzbekistan was report to her job at Chik-fil-A.
Of the potential of medaling in the then-distant 2024 Paris Olympics games, Reeves was circumspect.
“I like that it’s a good reflection of how much work I’ve put in behind the scenes,” the Hixson resident and now University of Tennessee at Chattanooga senior said. “How I go to bed early, get up early and watch what I do and eat. That I’m willing to work hard to make this happen.”
Of course, a gold medal was only aspirational in 2021. Now it’s a reality.