Holley Mangold, sister of Jets center Nick, finishes 10th in Olympic weightlifting

LONDON -- More than a dozen members of Holley Mangold's family watched her finish 10th in the women's super-heavyweight class in weightlifting Sunday. Perhaps none was as proud as her brother Nick, star center for the Jets.

"The fact that she has only been doing this for a handful of years and here she is on a world stage at the Olympics competing -- I think that's fantastic," said Nick Mangold, who left training camp to see his sister compete after the Jets encouraged him to do so. "She has the world in front of her. If she continues with it, I think she can do some great things."

He joined his parents, two sisters and nine other members of their family in the crowd.

Holley Mangold, 22, didn't have a perfect competition. She hurt her right wrist in the snatch portion and came out for the clean and jerk portion wearing a bandage. Then the back of her uniform ripped. She lifted 105 kilograms in the snatch and 135 kilograms in the clean and jerk for a total of 240 kilograms. That's just over 529 pounds, but still 30 pounds below her personal best.

She said she fought through pain and was proud because she had not lifted more than 80 kilograms in the past two or three weeks.

"About two days before I left for London, I tore a tendon in my hand catching the clean wrong," she said, "and I think I re-tore it again today."

Fellow American Sarah Robles finished seventh.

The gold medal went to China's Zhou Lulu, who won a terrific duel with Russia's Tatiana Kashirina. She lifted a total of 333 kilograms -- more than any other woman had totaled before in the two Olympic lifts.

Zhou, 24, may be the world's strongest woman, but she's not much of a farmer. "My family owns an orchard where they grow apples. I tried to go there and work for a while and help them out, but when I entered the orchard, I was too big," she said. "Every time I turned around, I would knock something over or hit one of the trees so all the apples would come tumbling down and I would step on them. So my parents told me to come out and just stop."

In weightlifting, she found her place to shine. And now she has a shiny gold medal.