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, in third place. But she failed to record a successful lift in the clean and jerk event, three times no-lifting at 108 kg.
She dropped her first attempt. She let the second one go behind her back. By the third, Delacruz’s muscles appeared fatigued, and she didn’t stand up from her squat.
Aiming to be the first American to medal at these postponed Olympics, Delacruz instead finished her Olympic debut by standing slowly from the mat and waving to a faint applause in a sparsely filled Tokyo International Forum.
China’s Hou Zhihui won with an Olympic record (210 kg), followed by India’s Chanu Saikhom Mirabai (202) and Indonesia’s Windy Cantika Aisah (194). Had Delacruz converted one of her clean and jerks at 108 kg, she would’ve finished at least tied for third.
“I’m not really sure,” Delacruz said of her second-half struggle. “It felt a little bit heavier, but the warm-up was really good, so sometimes it just doesn’t pull out on the platform.”
The 23-year-old former cheerleader at Wylie East was aiming to become the third woman in U.S. weightlifting history to stand on the Olympic podium, and she appeared primed to do so midway through.
Olympic weightlifting competition features two events: three attempts at the snatch and three attempts at the clean and jerk. Athletes can choose their starting weights and by how much to increase after each successful lift. Add each athlete’s heaviest marks from each portion for their total in the final standings.
Delacruz ended the snatch portion in third place with an 86 kg lift on her second attempt.
For a moment after her third try at 89 kg, she thought she’d improved her standing even more.
Delacruz had raised the 89 kg barbell above her head and stood from her squat with little hesitation. She celebrated on the mat, holding her face in her hands and jumping into her coach’s arms for a hug.
Then judges declared the attempt a no-lift.
They ruled it a “press-out” because she bent her elbows while rising from her squad.
The technicality is controversial in weightlifting circles and commentators during the live broadcast disagreed with the decision.
But officials upheld the ruling after Delacruz’s coaches challenged.
“Mentally, I was OK,” Delacruz said. “It didn’t really bother me clean and jerking. I was still really proud of myself for kind of making it, I guess, so it didn’t really bother me much.”
Multiple outlets had projected Delacruz to medal behind Zhihui, the favorite for gold.
After all, Delacruz had endured a meteoric rise since starting the sport in high school. She owns two Pan American golds and nine national records, and was the first competitor for a U.S. weightlifting squad with historic medal expectations in Tokyo.
There’s precedent for Delacruz to still earn one — perhaps at the next Olympics.
Saturday’s silver medalist, Mirabai of India, failed to make a clean and jerk attempt at the Rio Olympics in 2016. Had she converted one, Mirabai would’ve at least tied for third.
Sounds familiar for Delacruz?
“Definitely already looking towards the future now,” Delacruz said. “You live and learn.”
