'You hope your bad day is not in the Olympics, but sometimes it is.'
PARIS – Mary Theisen-Lappen might not end up as an Olympic teammate of Caitlin Clark at Los Angeles in 2028. It would be fitting, though.
One of her best memories of the Paris Olympics will be seeing those on the women’s basketball team at opening ceremony on the Seine.
“I’m anxious to get home and go to some Fever games again,” the weightlifter said.
More: She moved to Indiana to be strongest woman on Earth. Now, she's ready to show the world.
She wanted to get home with a medal.
Theisen-Lappen, a Bloomington resident and former Indiana State thrower in track and field, finished fifth Sunday in the superheavyweight class (178 pounds).
Li Wenwen of China repeated as gold medalist with a total of 681 pounds from snatch and clean and jerk.
Park Hyejeong, a 21-year-old South Korean, was silver medalist at 648 pounds. Great Britain’s Emily Campbell took bronze at 634.
Theisen-Lappen totaled 604 pounds from a snatch of 262 and clean and jerk of 342.
She uncharacteristically missed one attempt in the snatch, then two in the clean and jerk. As it turns out, successful lifts still would have left her short of a bronze medal.
“You hope your bad day is not in the Olympics,” she said, “but sometimes it is.”
She was a medal contender, having won a silver medal at last year’s World Championships.
She was trying to become the Sycamores’ third Olympic medalist, following wrestler Bruce Baumgartner (1984-88-92-96) and basketball player Larry Bird (1992).
Theisen-Lappen, 33, was the oldest of 61 women competing in weightlifting. She started in the sport seven years ago, three years after her days as a college thrower ended.
She was an NCAA Division II champion in the discus for Winona State, then transferred to Indiana State. In 2014, she won two Missouri Valley Conference titles in the shot put and was fourth and sixth in NCAA Championships indoors and outdoors, respectively.
Even with all that, she said, her favorite sport is basketball, in which she was a high school player in Eau Claire, Wis. Yet it seems unlikely she will be at the 2028 opening ceremony with Clark, the Fever point guard.
Theisen-Lappen said she would take weightlifting one year at a time. She is aiming for the 2025 World Championships at Forde, Norway.
“I definitely want to keep lifting,” she said. “I’m not done, but I don’t know that I’ll lift until ’28.”
She had to wait until the last of 16 days to compete and has been away from home for a month. She wanted to support teammates, she said, but could not stay up late each night.
She had support of her own from about 40 friends and family. The shouts of “go Mary!” were audible in South Paris Arena.
“That’s going to be a highlight of my life, for sure, having them here,” she said.
Contact IndyStar correspondent David Woods at dwoods1411@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter: @DavidWoods007.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: USA weightlifter Mary Thiesen-Lappen finishes 5th in Paris Olympics
