Jourdan Delacruz

TOKYO — After all the training and daydreaming and anticipating, the Olympics often happen in a blip, and sometimes the blip is mean. So it went Saturday for Jourdan Delacruz, the 23-year-old weightlifter from north Texas with the good story and the bright future. At the elegant Tokyo International Forum amid the metropolis, she went from the verge of a bronze medal to the outskirts of the standings, part of an opening day in which the United States did not win a medal for the first time since 1972.

TOKYO — Jourdan Delacruz dropped the barbell onto the mat and fell forward onto her knees. She looked ahead, her expression blank. The Wylie, Texas, native’s chances at medaling at these Tokyo Olympics had just vanished. Delacruz finished the snatch rounds, the first portion of the women’s 49kg weightlifting competition,...

At 23 years of age, Jourdan Delacruz will make her Olympics debut at the rescheduled 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games, representing the USA in the 49-kilogram class. Originally from Wylie, TX, Delacruz trains out of Power & Grace Performance in Suwanee, GA. She first got into the sport of weightlifting by training CrossFit® methodology, which incorporates many Olympic lifts in its programming.

So far, Team USA has had about as good of a showing at the 2021 Pan American Weightlifting Championships as possible. Just three days into the contest, and we have seen Jourdan Delacruz and Taylor Turner Wilkins score a mass of new records. As an Olympic Qualifier event, there is...

Incredible. Jourdan Delacruz had quite possibly one of the finest international performances by any American lifter in the past 30 years at the rescheduled 2020 Pan American Championships on April 20, 2021, in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. The Team USA weightlifter claimed every American record and every Pan American record en route to ascending the podium with three gold medals around her neck. Here are each of her attempts from the competition where she went a perfect six for six in the 49-kilogram weight class:

Weightlifters Mattie Rogers and Jourdan Delacruz are no strangers to the spotlight. Both are internationally competitive lifters, likely Olympic team members for the Tokyo Games, and American record setters. The highlights of their resumes speak for themselves:. Mattie Rogers (25 years old) 2017 Weightlifting World Championships Silver Medalist. 2019 Weightlifting...