Kiana Elliott

Fast Facts

Sport: Weightlifting
Event: Women's 64kg
Olympic History: Tokyo 2020
Year Born: 1997
State Born: NSW

About Kiana

Kiana Elliott’s sporting journey begun at six years of age, where she initially found success as a gymnast. With the rigours of training and continual injury forcing Elliott away from gymnastics at 14, Kiana found weightlifting as an avenue of maintaining physical activity and sustaining her overall wellbeing, but soon commenced a rapid ascension through the junior ranks of the sport. 

Elliott was first touted as a prospective Olympian over six years ago, when the then 17-year-old lifted 100kg Clean & Jerk weight in training, a figure untouched by any Australian youth athlete. 

The Sydney native’s profile rose in 2014, when she placed seventh at the Nanjing Youth Olympics to signal her position as the strongest girl in Australia. 

After quickly transferring to senior competition the next year, Elliott made her World Championships debut, where she lifted a Snatch of 89kg and a Clean & Jerk of 107kg to place 34th at age 18. 

Elliott’s first major senior success came in 2016, where she defeated compatriot Philippa Kate Malone to secure victory at the Oceania Championships. In this competition, Elliott bettered her World Championships Snatch (93kg) while maintaining her Clean & Jerk performance – the best two lifts of the tournament - to register a total of 200kg lifted and elevate herself to the best on the continent. 

Alongside long-time coach Martin Harlowe, Elliott touched down in Japan for her debut Olympics at the delayed 2020 Tokyo Games. 

She would enjoy a strong start to the competition achieving a Snatch lift of 101kg, placing her in the top 4 athletes. She would then add a Clean & Jerk lift of 108kg, achieving a total of 209 and an 11th overall placing at her opening games.