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SALT LAKE CITY — Weightlifting is a pretty binary sport: either you can lift the bar with hundreds of pounds of weights above your head, or you can't.
For 5-foot, 105-pound Morghan King, it all came down to one chance at the USA Olympic Trials, held this weekend at the Salt Palace.
One last chance for King to lift 220 pounds, over double her body weight, to make the Olympics. If she could, she'd vault to the top of the USA's leaderboard and secure her spot in the 2016 Olympics.
And she wasn't necessarily in the right state of mind.
"I'm not going to lie, I was super nervous," King said.
King's leg started cramping before her crucial lift, something she says has never happened before. "My body was kind of freaking out."
That's when King's support system came into play. One boost came from her boyfriend, who reminded her of other athletes' successes in big moments, despite not being at 100 percent.
And, as the timer counted down Sunday night, King executed. Her clean and jerk attempt went onto her shoulders, then above her head in triumph, as stands of supporters and unaffiliated observers alike cheered her on.
King only started weightlifting in 2011, after getting interested in Olympic-style weightlifting as a result of the CrossFit fitness program. Already by 2012, King was lifting full-time. Despite her small stature, she excelled at lifting big weights. Her first week, she was already back-squatting nearly 200 pounds.
As she told ESPN.com, "I was like, 'That was fun.' And people were like, 'Holy crap!'"
So yes, King is naturally talented. But she's also famous for her regimented diet ("I would probably eat breakfast for every meal if I could," King told FUEL), her yoga-focused Instagram account (she wants to become a yoga teacher after weightlifting), and her mental focus ("Usually before bed, I read some sort of mental training book," King told ESPN.com).
In other words, no other weightlifter prepares better. "You've got to focus on the little things to get you to the big prize," King says.
But of course the diminuitive King knows the power of little things. They all culminated to get her to the very top of American weightlifting, and a trip to Rio de Janeiro to compete in the 2016 Olympic Games.
