A 51-year-old mother of four from Queen Creek just set a weightlifting world record, and she didn’t even pick up a barbell until she was 39. Jenny Clouse achieved the record last month in Greece, lifting 171 pounds in the snatch.
According to ABC15 Arizona, that lift is the heaviest snatch recorded in official international competition by a woman age 50 or older, regardless of body weight. The station reports Clouse has also won two world titles in her age and weight class, along with 11 national titles, over the course of a career that has taken her around the world.
From a Community College Class to the World Stage
Clouse’s path to the sport started with an Olympic weightlifting class at Mesa Community College, the station’s report notes. She later began training at Performance One Advanced Training in Mesa, developing the skills that would eventually carry her onto international podiums more than a decade after she first touched a bar.
Per the same account, Clouse’s coach credits her success to a mix of natural athletic ability and a disciplined approach to the sport, saying she has “natural athletic ability and a commitment to mastering technique and improving.” That combination has defined her rise in a sport she didn’t try until well into adulthood.
A Record With Some Unresolved Numbers
The claim of a 171-pound snatch in Greece sits alongside a separate official tally that tells a somewhat different story. Official results from the 2015 National Masters Championships, held that April, show Clouse competing in the women’s 40–44 age division and 58-kilogram weight class, posting a 50-kilogram best snatch, a 71-kilogram best clean and jerk, and a 121-kilogram total.
More recently, a records document from the International Masters Weightlifting Association lists a Jenny Clouse, competing for the USA, as the W50, 63-kilogram-category snatch record holder with a 70-kilogram lift recorded on May 15, 2025, in Louisiana. That figure does not match the 171-pound snatch ABC15 attributes to the Greece competition, and it is not established whether the two lifts come from the same event, record system, age division, or weight class.
How Masters Records Work
Masters weightlifting maintains its own structure for record-keeping separate from the open category. USA Weightlifting lists dedicated Masters American Records categories for men and women ages 50 to 54, including a W50 women’s division like the one in which Clouse appears on the IMWA list.
Not every competition counts toward those record books, either. According to USA Masters Weightlifting, international competitions that are not sanctioned by the IMWA do not count for records unless specifically designated for a given year, with eligible records only breakable at specified masters championships and IMWA-sanctioned continental championships.
Despite the gaps in matching up the exact numbers, the headline for Queen Creek remains the same: a mother of four who didn’t start Olympic weightlifting until 39 is now competing, and winning, on an international stage. Clouse has said she hopes her story encourages others to try something new at any age.
