2008 IPF World Champion!

Like many powerlifting stories mine is not too much different then the rest. When I was 15, growing up in a small town known as New Haven, IN, and a sophomore in high school I took a weight training class because it sounded like fun. My older brother was involved in the class and I thought it would be cool.

I had grown up being the girl that played every sport and was pretty good at most of them. What I was mostly known for was my strength. I played football in the backyard and could hang with them if not cream them!

When starting the class I had never squatted before and did 275 pretty easily. I was hooked from then on. I took it for the rest of my high school career and by my senior year I squatted 360 lbs. completely raw. No belt, no wraps, no suit. Only one boy out squatted me that year.

I finally asked the teacher, who was not surprised, if there was a sport that encompassed this type of lifting. He directed me to a husband and wife team in a town about an hour away. Little did I know that these lifters were the president of the USAPL (at the time). Mike and Angie Overdeer who had all the knowledge that I wanted so badly to learn.

They soon taught me about the sport, technique and training needed to do the sport. I was hooked! I was taking my weight training class, going to softball practice and then driving an hour each way to go and powerlift. It was a very exciting time in my life.

In April of 1999, at the age of 18, I did my first powerlifting meet. The Indiana State Meet. I squatted that same 360 lbs., benched 170 lbs., deadlifted 380 lbs.and totaled 910 lbs.. To just barely beat my coach Angie!

I then took up the sport and never looked back!

While competing as a junior lifter, I started to dial in my technique and make a lot of strength gains. In my second meet ever at the 2000 Women's Nationals I won the teenage class for the 198+ category. I then found out that you could make a Junior World Team by winning your class. Although, I didn't make it in the 198+ category. I then dieted down to the 198 class and won the Collegiate National Championships which made me eligible for the team that was competing in Taiwan. As my fourth meet I competed in the Junior Worlds and took fourth place. That was my first meet where I found out what it meant to lift against the Russians and Ukranians!

I was bound and determined throughout my junior career to win before I left (eligible until age 23). At my second junior world championships, held in Bulgaria, I also met my husband Mike. About a year later he moved down to Indiana from Michigan. Mike then took over my training from there. He had been lifting for 14 years, was on 2 junior worlds himself, was the strength coach for the University of Pittsburg (Assistant), and was a junior world team coach. To say the least he knew powerlifting. He took over my training. I started with 1050 lbs. total and he took me to my current 1504 lbs. total! To say the least he is the reason my numbers keep growing.

After my third junior worlds and many american titles later. I decided my best chance of winning would be to compete at the 181 weight class. This would be my most dedicated challenge yet!

I came home from Russia in September of 2002, and by December of 2002 I was competing at a meet in the 181 class. I lost 17 lbs. in 6 weeks! I qualified for nationals at that body weight the following January. And this began my race to become the junior world champion.

In September of 2003 in Koscian, Poland I WON my first Junior World Championships. Not only did I win but I won by 32.5 kgs. Over the Russians, Ukranians, and other countries that I was first awed by in 2000. This was by far my greatest goal I had ever accomplished! It was wonderful hearing my national anthem, while standing on the HIGHEST of podiums. I will never forget the feeling.

With a 529 lbs. squat, 314 lbs. bench, 507 lbs. deadlift, and a 1350 lbs. total I set all junior american and open american records (although definitley not my first records). To date no junior has beaten those numbers in or outside of the USA! Nor has any open lifter!

In my career as a junior, I was on four junior world teams (fourth place, bronze medal, and GOLD MEDAL). I set american open records in the 181 and 198 classes, junior american and national meet records in the 181 and 198 classes, and collegiate american records in the 181 and 198 classes. I was a 2X World Team captain. I won 1 teenage national championship, 4 junior national championships, and 2 collegiate national championships.

I had done everything I set as goals as a junior lifter and now it was time to move onto the main event of being an open lifter. Although, even though I was a junior lifter I was no stranger to that platform either!

While I was lifting as a junior I had also been developing as a new open lifter. I made my first open worlds in 2002 held in Reisa, Germany as a 198 lifter, taking a disappointing 5th place. This was also my first exposure to what the open women were lifting. That once again opened my eyes to the very top lifters. In that time frame is also when I dropped down to the 181 class. In a very heavily contested meet at the 2003 women's world championships in Chicago I won the bronze medal (3 months before winning junior worlds). I was elated that I had jumped up 2 places in 1 year!

As I continued to progress, I had to constantly change my goals. I took silver in the 198 class at the 2005 women's world championships, held in Finland, just barely missing gold. I repeated the same outcome in the 2006 women's world championships, held in Norway. In this meet I did new personal bests and new some new american records with a 585 lbs. squat, 358 bench, 512 lbs. deadlift and a 1432 bls. total. My biggest total at that point.

In 2007 I refocused by setting my goals at beating the world record squat in the 198 class. It was 595 lbs. As I have learned through lifting I set my goals first, layout my training, and lastly make my diet. This has been proven time and time again with my meets. I did just that and in July at men's nationals I got to finally beat the world record squat with 597 lbs.! I also set an american record deadlift with 534lbs. and an american record total of 1463 lbs. The second largest total ever in the USAPL and the largest ever at 198.

I then went onto once again win the silver medal in the 198+ class at the 2007 women's world championships, held in Austria. Since then I won my 6th women's nationals and my 11th national title. With this national title I became the second female to EVER total over 1500 lbs.! I squated 585 lbs., benched 380 lbs., deadlifted 540 lbs., and totaled 1504 lbs. This was my biggest total to date. I recently competed in the Southern Ohio State Meet where I was lifting to tune up for the world championships. This happened to be my biggest day ever. I hit a 610 lbs. squat, 400 lbs. bench, and 520 lbs. deadlift. This became the HIGHEST TOTAL EVER done by a women in the USAPL with 1530 lbs.!!! I have now set more american records and I hope that I will soon put it together to win my first open world championships.

Until then I will never give up because I know that anything is possible when you set your mind and body to it! (Look for more to come!)