Emily Campbell hopes Paris success will be inspiration for weightlifting’s next generation

The 30-year-old was the only British lifter at the Olympics and set a new combined personal best to back up her silver medal from Tokyo with a bronze in Paris

Emily Campbell won bronze in the +81kg weightlifting in Paris. (AP)

Having blazed a trail to two Olympic medals, Emily Campbell hopes that her days as a lone figurehead for weightlifting are numbered.

Campbell self-funded her way to silver at Tokyo 2020 and thanks to that historic podium finish, the sport now enjoys National Lottery backing with a group of seven athletes featuring on UK Sport’s World Class Programme. That allows them to train full time, have access to the world’s best coaches and benefit from pioneering medical support.

The 30-year-old was the sole Team GB lifter to qualify for Paris, winning bronze. Crucially, she believes the conditions are now in place for that not to be the case at LA 2028 and beyond and will do everything in her power to ensure it doesn’t.

“It would be lovely to have some friends here with me,” said Campbell, “We’ve got some really good juniors coming up, they’re working really hard and hopefully they can see me on the podium and be like, ‘you know what, she’s gone and done it again, we can do this.’”

Campbell has a high opinion of 26-year-old Fraer Morrow, who is the British record holder at 55kg. Morrow pulled out of the Paris Olympic qualification process in March due to back issues.

“I’m going to be around the University of Nottingham, which is our base, trying to help and mentor some of the girls and some of the guys, to motivate them to realise they can do this on the international stage. We can play.”

Emily Campbell (right) hopes winning weightlifting bronze in Paris can inspire others to take up the sport. (PA)

Weightlifting at Olympic level is a game of chess played with the weight of the world on your shoulders.

Campbell was as assured in the snatch stage as she could have wished for, adding 2kg to the British record she set in winning gold at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham. She lifted 126kg with such ease and emphasis that it felt as if she could have been more ambitious and looked to get closer to South Korea’s Park Hyejeong in silver medal position.

Park, who has burst onto the scene since Tokyo and won the 2023 world title, proved impossible to catch but the Brit extended her 3kg buffer in bronze medal position to 5kg with a 162kg lift in the clean and jerk, although attempts at 169kg and 174kg were well beyond her.

“My snatches just felt insane, they’ve not felt that good in a very long time,” she said. “They were going exactly where they needed to go.

“You have to try these big weights, it’s the Olympic Games and the only way I was going to move up was to put that on the bar. You have to go for these things.”

Gold went to China’s Li Wenwen, who blew away the competition, winning with an overall total of 309kg, with Park taking silver on 299kg and Campbell bronze in a personal best of 288kg.

“The field was tough,” said Campbell, “the level compared to Tokyo was so much higher. I know I had to bring out the big guns and I’m just so happy.

“I was the sole GB representation this time so I had to bring back something special, and my Tokyo medal has got a friend now!”

A British record snatch lift of 126kg made sure Campbell left the Olympics with a bronze medal. (PA)

Having stolen the show with her red and blue bobs in Tokyo, Campbell sported an extravagant hairstyle made up of the Olympic rings, devised with celebrity stylist Lisa Farrall.

Campbell is the first British weightlifter since Louis Martin in 1964 to win multiple medals at the Olympics.

Her silver in Tokyo was Team GB’s first in a women’s event and was won in the absence of friends and family, who were out in force in the French capital.

“When I started weightlifting, we always set out that I would go for the Olympics in Paris and try to win a medal,” said Campbell.

“Tokyo was a bonus along the way. This is special, we’ve achieved the goal we set out to do and I can’t really complain.”

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