Campbell and her hairdo claim Team GB's final medal of Paris 2024

Weightlifter Emily Campbell came into the arena with the coolest hairdo in Paris and now has an Olympic bronze medal to match.

The 30-year-old, who won silver in Tokyo, captured her second Olympic medal thanks to a British record overall total of 288kg.

It was not a particularly close fight between the top three, with Chinese star Li Wenwen defending her title by lifting 309kg and South Korea's Park Hyejeong winning silver with 299kg on debut.

"The field was tough," said Campbell, "the level compared to Tokyo was so much higher.

"I know I had to bring out the big guns and I'm just so happy. I was the sole GB representation this time so I had to bring back something special, and my Tokyo medal has got a friend now!"

Having stolen the show with her red and blue bobs in Tokyo, Campbell sported an extravagant hairstyle made up of the Olympic rings, devised with celebrity stylist Lisa Farrall.

She made a superb start in the snatch stage, which involves one singular heave, with the overall total comprising of the snatch and the clean and jerk.

She lifted 126kg with relative ease, smashing the personal best and national record set in winning gold at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.

Campbell extended her 3kg buffer in bronze medal position to 5kg with a 162kg lift in the clean and jerk, although attempts at 169kg and 174kg were well beyond her.

"My snatches just felt insane, they've not felt that good in a very long time," she said. "They were going exactly where they needed to go.

"You have to try these big weights, it's the Olympic Games and the only way I was going to move up was to put that on the bar. You have to go for these things."

Campbell is the first British weightlifter since Louis Martin in 1964 to win multiple medals at the Olympics.

Her silver in Tokyo was Team GB's first in a women's event and was won in the absence of friends and family, who were out in force in the French capital.

"When I stared weightlifting, we always set out that I would go for the Olympics in Paris and try to win a medal," said Campbell.

"Tokyo was a bonus along the way. This is special, we've achieved the goal we set out to do and I can't really complain."

Sportsbeat 2024