From staff reports
USA Weightlifting announced the U.S. team on Tuesday, Sept. 13, that will compete at the 2022 IWF World Championships from Dec. 5 to 16 in Bogotá, Colombia, and Beaufort’s C.J. Cummings is on the team in the 81-kilogram weight class.
Team USA consists of the maximum 20 weightlifters, 19 of whom have medaled internationally at the senior and/or junior levels. The 11 veterans of this meet have a combined 33 prior senior world championships under their belts. Four of the athletes have already medaled at senior worlds and nine are junior world medalists.
Cummings is tied for the most tenured on the men’s side with four previous Worlds appearances.
Worlds will be the first international meet in more than 16 months for Cummings, with the Tokyo Olympic Games being his last. Cummings has since gone up a weight class, from 73kg to 81kg,
Following a 12-year medal drought, the U.S. has been on the podium at each of the past four world championships, including eight-medal hauls scored in both 2017 and 2019.
The Americans will contend not just for podium placements at the sport’s most esteemed annual competition but also for placements on the first iteration of the 2024 Olympic Qualification Ranking. The 2022 World Championships is the first of seven events an athlete can enter that count toward the OQR for the Olympic Games Paris 2024.
