COLUMBUS — Holley Mangold has proved that dreams don’t always follow a script.

“I always wanted to be an Olympic athlete, but I always thought I’d get it for diving or gymnastics,” she said. “I always wanted to be one of those girls, but my body just didn’t work out for that, so I had to go to a different sport.”

That’s just what the 5-foot-8, 374-pound Alter High grad did Sunday night when she won a spot as a weightlifter on the U.S. Olympic team headed to the London Games this summer.

The 22-year-old Mangold was one of 15 competitors vying for just two spots at the U.S. Olympic Women’s Weightlifting Team Trials that were part of the Arnold Sports Festival held at the Columbus Convention Center.

Competing as a super heavyweight, she won the clean and jerk competition with a lift of 145 kilos (319 pounds) and was second in the two-hand snatch with a 110-kilo hoist (242 pounds) that was topped by Sarah Robles of Mesa, Ariz., who lifted 114 kilos. Robles finished first overall with a 258 kilo total for both lifts, and Mangold was second at 255.

Many of the other competitors were at smaller weights, but the Olympic berths were given to those whose scores were closest to the last five Olympic bronze medal totals in their respective divisions.

As for Mangold, another change in the script is London.

Just over a year ago, she and her Columbus-based coach Mark Cannella were focused on the 2016 games, but she made such strides in training — lifting 35 total kilos more than this time last year, Canella said — that 2012 became a reality.

“In just over a year she has gone from dark horse to an Olympian,” Cannella said.

Just as amazing is what she’s done in her own household.

For most of her life she’s been known as the younger sister of Nick Mangold, the Ohio State star who is a three-time All Pro center for the New York Jets.

“She’s always wanted to step out of the shadow of her big brother, and this will let her do that,” said her dad, Vern Mangold, who was in the crowd Sunday and threw his right fist toward the heavens in jubilation when his daughter made her Olympic-clinching lift in the clean and jerk.

“As I travel around the world and talk to people who know about athletics, nobody knows about American football outside of the main countries,” Vern said. “But they know weightlifting all over the world.

“Holley was a rock star in Colombia. She had Russian guys following her all around Romania. And if you do well in the Olympics, well, that (acclaim) is international.”

The entire Mangold family — from Vern and wife Therese to Nick, daughters Maggey and Kelley, Kelley’s boyfriend and the grandparents — were in the crowd for the nearly four-hour competition.

While Nick stood in the back of competition hall and declined comment, his mom spoke for both of them:

“I had a son who went to the Pro Bowl this year and now a daughter headed to the Olympics. All in one year — that’s pretty cool.”

In Holley, they have maybe the most unique female athlete ever to call the Miami Valley home.

At Alter High she wasn’t just an offensive lineman on the Knights football team, she was the first girl to ever play a down from the line of scrimmage in Ohio prep football history and also the first girl ever to play in a state title game.

After graduating from Alter, she earned a scholarship to Ursuline College outside Cleveland and competed in discus and the shot put.

It was while she was in college that she began weightlifting, and eventually she left school to work on her new sport at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs. For the past 13 months, she’s been training with Cannella in Columbus.

“And the thing is, we’re just seeing the tip of the iceberg with her,” he said. “She’s going to get better and better ... although she certainly was pretty good today.”

Therese agreed: “She’s a money ball player. She knew what was at stake today and she did it.”

While she rose to the moment, Holley admitted she did so while battling to keep her emotions in check.

“I was shaking in my boots,” she said with grin. “I haven’t been lifting that long and I was extremely nervous. Before my last lift, all I kept saying over and over in my head was ‘Make it ... Make it ... Make it.’

“And when I did, after that, it was just pure joy. It’s exciting that it all came true. Everybody dreams crazy things in their life and this ... this is kind of crazy.

“I am an Olympian.”