How did you get into competitive weightlifting?

I’ve been in sports literally as long as I can remember. My parents put me in toddler gymnastics classes around 18 months old and I stayed in the gymnastics gym until I was 10. I switched to soccer and then track through middle and high school, when some friends of mine invited me to work out before class with them in what was essentially a CrossFit style. I then was invited to a CrossFit gym and was told I could likely qualify for USAW Junior Nationals, so I gave it a shot. After 6 months of dedicated weightlifting training, I placed 3rd at my first Junior Nationals. A year later, I won Junior Nationals and qualified for the Junior Pan American Championships and my career took off.

What would you say was your proudest moment during your career and why?

This answer changes all the time but I think the Pan American Games in 2023. Maybe 5-6 weeks prior, I had stepped onto the world stage in the best shape of my life and on my opening clean and jerk strained my quad and had to withdraw, which was devastating at the time. I rehabbed the quad and stepped back onto the competition stage with barely any preparation and managed to win one of the rarer medals in weightlifting. I felt like in that competition I really got to dig into the parts of being a competitor that I pride myself on: tenacity, grit, and managing stress and anxiety to successfully take the lift I needed to win the medal. The clean and jerk was 1kg above the lift I got hurt on, but I had no fear approaching it. So much work was done mentally and physically in the few weeks leading up to get to that point. It was such a bright spot in what ended up being a rough quad. In 2023 I had 3 no total competitions and 2 of the best competitions of my life.

You have now transitioned from competitive weightlifting to being part of the board as an Athlete Director. Now seeing a different side of the sport, what has it made you realize how important working with the USA Weightlifting Foundation and their work has been?

Being an athlete is interesting because everyone has thoughts about the budget, yet no one really takes the time to learn about it. I’m someone who was fortunate enough to benefit greatly for years from USAW funding and at other points received none, so I’m aware of how life-changing funding can be for an athlete. USAW is a non-profit and that’s clear in the finances, so fundraising is vital to providing the funding necessary to support our athletes the way everyone calls for. There’s a lot of calls to action for USAW to offer athletes more, but without fundraising, that would come at the cost of our members paying higher fees for everything, which nobody wants. There’s been so many times the athletes are worried about the next stipend policy, unsure if they can pay rent the next month, while on the other side USAW is working incredibly hard to make sure they can pay us at all.

USA Weightlifting Foundation and USA Weightlifting launched their new donor campaign, Team28, how important is it to have people become part of this program to support USA Weightlifting?

There is so much that USAW would like to do to grow the sport and support its best lifters, which are all things the membership calls for. The staff has really amazing ideas for how to accomplish these things but the reality is that there’s just not enough money in the budget to do everything that the staff, membership, and athletes would like.

I know TEAM28 is dedicated to providing funding through all levels of the sport, but as a former elite, my experience is that funding allows elite athletes to be athletes. When we receive a livable stipend with funds and resources for mental and physical health services, many of which are hardly or not covered by insurance, we’re able to focus on training and recovery as our priority. We have the incredible opportunity to forego working full-time and don’t have to worry about spending thousands of dollars on healthcare, travel, and all the other costs that accumulate. There’s a lot of pushback on issues like not funding travel for international competitions, but the reality is that the money isn’t there. Athletes then have to somehow source thousands of dollars on their own to have a chance at pursuing their goals of achieving the highest level in sport. So many people are willing to donate to crowdfunds, which is amazing, but donating to campaigns like TEAM28 can help create a budget so that those crowdfunds aren’t necessary in the first place. In short, it is vital to become part of this program if people want athletes to have the resources they keep calling for.

What would you say are the biggest challenges weightlifters face to reach their goals?

Money. Isn’t that always the answer to every problem? If athletes have to work to support themselves, no matter how efficient and disciplined they are, training takes a hit somewhere. I worked as a personal trainer briefly and even though I only had 1-3 clients a day, the little things like waking up earlier, eating at inopportune times, added activity, etc. all impacted training. Of course it’s manageable, but it’s not optimal. I was in the best shape of my life while on stipend, training 9 sessions per week, sleeping 10-12 hours each night, and spending almost all of my free time eating or doing recovery (sports psychology appointments, physical therapy, etc., all funded by USAW). With the current National Team Program, it’s a battle to get the international total necessary to become part of the NTP, which requires competing nationally to qualify for the chance to get the international total, then paying your way to the international competition to try to make the total. That’s thousands and thousands of dollars just to try to put yourself in position to earn support so you can focus just on weightlifting.

What advice would you give to any up and coming weightlifter hoping to reach the top of the podium in international competition?

Take your recovery seriously. Don’t push through injuries if you don’t have to, or else they could become nagging lifelong issues that flare up. Use every failure as a learning opportunity to get better. Why did that go poorly? Can you adjust your approach, mentally or physically, to training and competition? Did you need to manage your weight better? Did you need to manage recovery better? Use the resources around you and ask for help. I only accomplished as much as I did with the help of multiple coaches, medical professionals, dietitians and nutritionists, mental health specialists, training partners, my family, and USAW. Be grateful for what your body can do and all the experiences you’ll have and people you’ll meet along the way and try not to take any of it for granted. Before you know it, you’re old and retired and you’ll be looking back at meets thinking “why did I do xyz instead of appreciating being on that stage?” This is a very hard sport, so try to find the joy where you can.

beyond the bar: meredith alwine