MARIETTA, Ga. — Where raw strength meets technique, one 20-year-old champion weightlifter has been making gains in Georgia in hopes of competing at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.
"It's been very, very busy," Hampton Morris, a weightlifting Jr. World Champion gold medalist and current American record holder from Marietta, said.
His passion for the sport started when he was around 10 years old, and now he's the first man from the USA to win a world champion gold medal in 50 years. But the journey began with another sport, soccer.
"We knew he was very good at weightlifting at the end. It took a little while to realize it, but, you know, maybe six months in, without real effort, (we were) approaching American records for youth," Tripp Morris, Hampton Morris' father, said.
Watch the full interview with Hampton Morris below:
Tripp, who has no formal training in weightlifting, threw himself into the sport immediately to support his son.
"My dad coached me from the very beginning," Hampton said. He added, "He's sacrificed just as much as I have towards my dream."
The family even moved into another home and gave up their garage to create a gym for practicing; Hampton said family and friends all pitched in to help build it.
"We have everything. There's nothing here that, no one would come here and train and say, 'oh, I need this,'" Tripp said. "It's got everything."
And Tripp Morris hasn't missed a trip yet, Hampton Morris said, while crediting his father's tough coaching style for much of his success.
Watch the full interview with Tripp Morris below:
"I wouldn't be able to be as successful as I have been if he wasn't a tough coach and if he didn't hold me to a high standard," he said.
That dedication and perseverance bore fruit at the recent European Championships, where Hampton climbed three spots in the Olympic qualification ranking, edging closer to his Olympic dream.
"It would be the greatest achievement of my life so far," Hampton Morris said. "An amazing reward for all the work that me and everyone around me has put in for almost a decade."
