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Weight of a nation Haworth's bronze medal a boon for sport in U.S.Posted: Friday September 22, 2000 12:00 AMUpdated: Thursday November 09, 2000 11:33 AM
SYDNEY, Australia (CNNSI.com) -- Tara Nott got the Olympic medal the United States weightlifters hardly expected, and Cheryl Haworth gave them the one they were supposed to get. The pressure was on Haworth to win a medal and help establish the U.S. weightlifters. She made all six of her lifts and, with a gold or silver medal not a possibility, didn't have to push herself to get the bronze medal. "We had to have a medal," U.S. coach Michael Cohen said. "We had to have a U.S. lifter on that podium. We weren't going to jeopardize that medal." The United States wound up with two medals from its female lifters, its first in weightlifting since 1984. Nott, among those rooting Haworth on, initially took the silver at 105 pounds Sunday, then was awarded the gold Friday when Bulgaria's Izabela Dragneva was stripped of the medal for using a banned drug.
Nott passed up her own hastily scheduled gold medal ceremony to watch Haworth lift, and a U.S. Olympic official accepted the medal in her place. "They are very good friends, and Tara just had to be here," Cohen said. "Obviously, we're very excited to win two medals. But while I'm happy for Tara, I'm concerned about the problems in our sport." The 17-year-old Haworth, who attends a school for gifted art students in her hometown of Savannah, Ga., lifted an American-record 275 1/2 pounds in the snatch, but still was 22 pounds off the lead going into the clean and jerk. So, with no chance to catch leaders Ding Meiyuan of China and Agata Wrobel of Poland, the 300-pound Haworth played it safe and didn't try to exceed her previous best of 319 1/2 pounds in the clean and jerk. She finished with a total of 595 pounds. "I listened to my coach. He said to lift 145 [kilograms] for the bronze and lock it in and that's what I did," said Haworth, who initially got into lifting at age 13 to build up her muscles for softball. "I'm certain I could have done more, but the bronze medal was more important." Ding broke world records in the snatch, the clean and jerk and total lift to win the gold medal, totaling 661 1/4 pounds to edge the 19-year-old Wrobel by 11 pounds. The two have traded records for most of the last year, and Haworth, who finished 66 pounds behind, is not yet in their class. The Ding-Wrobel-Haworth finish was the same as in the world championships last year. "Maybe by 2004 ..." Haworth said. The entire U.S. lifting team was on hand to cheer on the 5-foot-9 Haworth, constantly shouting her nickname "Fun." Haworth's medal also was important because it helps give larger teens who, because it is so fashionable to be slender, may have self-esteem problems, Cohen said. "Cheryl is very comfortable with her size," Cohen said. "She is a very good girl that is not picked on at school, that gets to go to all the prom dances, and has more boyfriends than you can shake a stick at." 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. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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