Morris may be one among Team USA’s biggest stars. It’s evident he’s desirous to proceed showing why.
On Apr. 23, 2023, Hampton Morris shared an Instagram video of himself attempting a 175-kilogram (385.8-pound) clean & jerk during a rigorous training session. The strength feat is 14 kilograms (30.9 kilos) greater than Morris’s Junior World Record within the 61-kilogram weight class. He succeeded within the clean and just missed the jerk, failing to secure an overhead lockout. In response to Morris’s post, he had a body weight of 64.8 kilograms (142.8 kilos) on the time of the lift but plans to chop all the way down to his usual 61-kilogram (134.5-pound) status by the point he officially competes again.
The weightlifter notched his record mark of 162 kilograms (357.1 kilos) during a Senior gold-medal winning performance on the 2022 International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) Pan-American Championships in Bogotá, Colombia. That lift stays Morris’ all-time competition best.
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Morris’s most up-to-date training clean & jerk attempt is connected to his preparation for the 2023 IWF Grand Prix I. The competition takes place on Jun. 8-13, 2023, in Havana, Cuba, and is a qualifying event for the 2024 Summer Olympic Games in Paris, France. A sterling performance there could be a large step forward for Morris to work toward earning his first-ever berth on Team USA’s Olympic weightlifting roster.
On the time of this text’s publication, Morris has three Senior gold medals within the 61-kilogram division to his name. He scored all of them on the last three iterations of the IWF Pan-American Championships (2021-2023). Morris can be in possession of a 61-kilogram gold medal from the 2021 IWF Junior World Championships and a 61-kilogram gold medal from the 2021 IWF Youth World Championships.
Even considering his age, the weightlifter is one among Team USA’s more decorated energetic competitors, boasting seven victories in international contests dating back to the IWF Pan-American Youth Championships in 2019. In that very same timeframe, the one instance Morris has ever fallen wanting the highest of the rostrum was a silver medal from the 2021 IWF Junior Pan-American Games in Cali and Valle, Colombia.
Here’s an outline of all seven of Morris’s international profile wins:
Hampton Morris (61KG) | International Victories 2019-2023
- 2019 Pan-American Youth Championships — First place
- 2020 Pan-American Junior Championships — First place
- 2021 Youth World Championships — First place
- 2021 Pan-American Championships — First place
- 2022 Junior World Championships — First place
- 2022 Pan-American Championships — First place
- 2023 Pan-American Championships — First place
What’s clear from this ledger is that Morris, still just 19, is already one among the largest names in American weightlifting and otherwise.
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A giant few weeks await Morris as he tries to take the subsequent step in his already prolific weightlifting profession. Morris has proven himself on a global stage and evidently has the prerequisite strength and athleticism to thrive amongst the globe’s elite. The following step is doing it on the Olympic Games. That, too, may be an outright inevitability.
Featured image: @hamptonmorris on Instagram