Jenny Arthur celebrating her bronze-medal victory in the women's 81 kg. class at the 2019 IWF World Championships on Sept. 25, 2019 in Pattaya, Thailand.
Olympian Jenny Arthur broke through to win the bronze medal in total weight in the women’s 81 kg. class Wednesday at the IWF World Championships in Pattaya, Thailand. The Colorado Springs, Colorado, resident also won a silver medal in clean & jerk.
The medals were Arthur’s first at the world championships. The 25-year-old Arthur had competed at worlds five times prior to this year, and she was also a 2016 Olympian.
With Arthur’s two medals, the U.S. women now have eight medals, tying their best performance at the world championships since 1991. Kate Nye and Mattie Rogers each earned three medals on Sunday in the women's 71 kg. class.
Arthur posted the seventh highest weight in snatch (106 kg.) and the second highest score in clean & jerk (139 kg.) for a total weight of 245 kg. Colombia’s Leidy Yessenia Solis Arboleda finished first in total weight with 247 kg. Spain’s Lidia Valentín was second, just one kilo behind.
In the clean & jerk, only Solis Arboleda bested Arthur, lifting 142 kg.
Both Solis Arboleda and Valentin are former Olympic and world medalists in other weight classes, with Valentin being a defending world champion. Because women’s 81 kg. is not an Olympic weight class, Arthur is expected to compete for an Olympic spot in the 76 or 87 kg. class.
Arthur, who grew up in Gainesville, Georgia, has been steadily climbing the ranks over the last several years. After finishing 12th in 2013 and 14th in 2014, she jumped up to seventh in 2015, fifth in 2017 and fourth in 2018. In 2016, Arthur was the first weightlifter named to the U.S. Olympic Team, and she went on to finish sixth in Rio.
The world championships continue through Friday.
Chrös McDougall has covered the Olympic movement for TeamUSA.org since 2009 on behalf of Red Line Editorial, Inc. He is based in Minneapolis-St. Paul.
