Sydney, Australia
The image of women in the Olympics has been either the pixie gymnast, or the sleek-bodied athletes in track and swimming.
Friday, a new woman emerged to break the stereotype.
At 308 pounds, Cheryl Haworth never will be described as being sleek or pixie. Nor does she want to be.
"I'm not trying to be small," Haworth said. "I'm trying to be strong."
Haworth is one of the three strongest women in the world. At the age of 17, she won the bronze medal in the super heavyweight division in Olympic weightlifting. She finished behind gold medal winner Meiyuan Ding of China and Agata Wrobel of Poland.
Haworth equaled personal bests, lifting 275 pounds in the snatch category, and 319 pounds in clean and jerk. There was some question about whether she could have gone higher, but she was pleased to bring home a bronze.
"I came here hoping for a medal, and I got one," Haworth said.
Haworth, arguably, is the biggest female athlete to step into the American Olympic spotlight. Her size is one of the reasons she attracted a large press corps to her event Friday.
Coming from a society where swimsuit models are viewed as the ideal, Haworth faced predictable, even insulting, questions, about what it is like to be 308 pounds. Some of them implied that just because she is big, she couldn't be happy.
Haworth, a native of Savannah, Ga., answered each question patiently, an easy task since she has been down this road before.
"I don't think my life is different," said Haworth, whose nickname is "Fun." "I have a lot of friends, and I have a good time."
Haworth is extremely athletic. She has a vertical leap of 33 inches, and can do a full split. She also is artistic, winning awards for her sketches.
Proud mother Sheila Haworth had the video camera rolling as Cheryl accepted her bronze medal. The ease with which Haworth handled her weights made it seem as if she could challenge the frontrunners, but coach Michael Cohen decided to play it conservatively.
He figured Ding and Wrobel were too far ahead of Haworth to risk her losing the bronze. Ding set the world record with a combined total of 660 pounds. At that point, Wrobel needed a clean-and-jerk of 384 pounds, 11 pounds over the world mark Ding just set, to win the gold, but she barely got the bar off the floor.
"Unfortunately, the competition was very thick," Cohen said. "The idea was for Cheryl not to make a mistake. USA weightlifting needed another medal, and Cheryl was there to give us one."
Haworth, wearing the medal around her neck, didn't have any problems with the strategy. Still in high school, she is looking to get stronger and more experience by 2004 for the Olympics in Athens, Greece.
"Obviously, [Ding and Wrobel] are stronger," Haworth said. "Hopefully, it will change."
If it does, and Haworth wins the gold medal, she will be a role model for women -- big and small.
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