Marietta's Hampton Morris makes Olympic history with weightlifting medal
Hampton Morris of Team United States performs a snatch during the Weightlifting Mens 61kg on day twelve of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 at South Paris Arena on August 07, 2024 in Paris, France. (Photo by Lars Baron/Getty Images)
PARIS - Hampton Morris does not have a driver’s license. He does have an Olympic bronze medal.
The 20-year-old who trains in his garage at home in Marietta, Georgia, on Wednesday became the first U.S. men’s weightlifter to take home a medal of any color at the Games in four decades. Narrowly missing out on a world record that would have gotten him silver, Morris followed Mario Martinez and Guy Carlton from Los Angeles in 1984 as the most recent American men to medal at the Olympics.
"It’s amazing that I’m able to leave that kind of mark in the sport," Morris said after finishing third in the men’s 61-kilogram division. "I’m just in disbelief."
Morris, who is coached by his father, Tripp, got emotional with the bronze medal hanging around his neck when he began talking about what his mother, Anne Marie, and his sister, Etta, gave up so he could lift at such a high level. His grandmother Debbie drives him to physical therapy every week.
"I don’t have anywhere else to go, so I never had any real need to get my driver’s license," Morris said. "I’m planning to get it very soon. I’ve pretty much learned how to drive. I just haven’t taken the test yet."
That is a short-term goal. Doing better in Los Angeles in 2028 — probably moving up a weight class next time — is for down the line.
Hampton Morris of Team United States reacts after performing a clean and jerk during the Weightlifting Men's 61kg on day twelve of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 at South Paris Arena on August 07, 2024 in Paris, France. (Photo by Lars Baron/Getty Image
Until now, his priority was getting on the podium in Paris, something that was threatened when he slipped on his first clean and jerk. USA Gymnastics senior director of sport performance Mike Gattone, standing nearby, said, "That’s the third guy I’ve seen slip on that platform."
Morris moved the bar forward for his second attempt and was successful on the 379 pound lift that put him in medal position at 298. Locked into a medal, he went for a clean-and-jerk world record attempt of 392 pounds and came up just short of completing it.
"I knew I had it in me," said Morris, the youngest U.S. weightlifter at the Olympics since Cheryl Haworth in 2000. "Any other day, I would definitely have a shot at making it. Today I had a shot of making it."