American weightlifter Mary Thiesen-Lappen finishes 5th at the Paris Olympics

David Bos
| Special for IndyStar

PARIS – Mary Theisen-Lappen may not be Caitlin Clark’s teammate at the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. But it would be fitting.

One of her fondest memories of the Paris Olympics is seeing the women’s basketball team during the opening ceremony on the Seine.

“I can’t wait to get back home and go to some Fever competitions,” the weightlifter said.

More: She moved to Indiana to become the strongest woman on earth, and now she’s ready to show the world.

She wanted to go home with a medal.

Theisen-Lappen, a Bloomington native and former track and field player at Indiana State, finished fifth in the super heavyweight class (178 pounds) on Sunday.

Li Wenwen of China repeated his gold medal with a total of 681 pounds (293 kilograms) from both the snatch and the jerk.

Park Hyejeong, a 21-year-old from South Korea, won silver at 648 pounds. Emily Campbell of Great Britain won bronze at 634.

Theisen-Lappen totaled 604 pounds from a snatch of 262 and a clean and jerk of 342.

She unusually missed one attempt in the snatch, and then two in the clean and jerk. As it turns out, successful lifts would still have left her short of a bronze medal.

“You hope your bad day isn’t during the Olympics,” she said, “but sometimes it is.”

She was one of the contenders for a medal, as she won a silver medal at the world championships last year.

She was aiming 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 who lifted weights. She took up the sport seven years ago, three years after her days as a collegiate pitcher ended.

She was an NCAA Division II champion in the discus for Winona State before transferring to Indiana State. In 2014, she won two Missouri Valley Conference titles in the shot put and placed fourth and sixth at the NCAA Championships indoor and outdoor, respectively.

Even with all that, she said, her favorite sport is basketball, which she played as a high school player in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. Still, it seems unlikely she’ll be at the 2028 opening ceremonies with Clark, the Fever point guard.

Theisen-Lappen said she would take weightlifting one year at a time, aiming for the 2025 world championships in Forde, Norway.

“I definitely want to keep lifting,” she said. “I’m not done yet, but I don’t know if I’ll keep lifting until ’28.”

She had to wait until the last of 16 days to compete and was away from home for a month. She wanted to support her teammates, she said, but couldn’t stay up late every night.

She herself had the support of about 40 friends and family members. The cries of “go Mary!” were heard in South Paris Arena.

“It will definitely be a highlight of my life, having them here,” she said.

Contact IndyStar correspondent David Woods at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter: @DavidWoods007.