| PERSPECTIVE |
(April 12, 2002) - Some of the strongest women in the country live right here in Nebraska. A group of champion powerlifters train in central Nebraska. The young women hold state and national titles. They can lift close to three times their weight. There’s also a Lincoln woman who may compete in an international powerlifting competition. Many people don’t associate young women with powerlifting, but these girls are shattering that stereotype. “Statewide’s” Andrea Gallagher reports. |
||||
Transcript of Perspective
|
Watch the Perspective story here:RealPlayer | QuickTime |
|||
Transcript of Strong Women
[Statewide Reporter Andrea Gallagher]
This farmstead may look like many others in Central rural Nebraska….complete with horses grazing in the field, and a barn….but inside the barn there's a different kind of subculture - and it has nothing to do with farm animals. These young women are champion powerlifters. Some of them lift close to 3 times their weight.
[Peggy Deaver/Ansley]
"I lifted 105 in bench, 286 in dead lift and 242 in squat."
[Jamie Goodner/Litchfield]
"I can bench 95, squat 215, and my best dead lift is 265."
[Lindsey Hartman/Ansley]
"in a meet I've squatted 255, benched 105 and deadlifted 275."
[Andrea Gallagher]
For most of these girls - lifting weights started as a way to gain strength for high school sports, then they realized they were pretty good and decided to take it a step further.
[Jamie Goodner]
"One of my friends older brothers started out here and he liked it a lot and my parents thought it would be a good thing for me to help out my athletic performance."
[Andrea Gallagher]
Their coach is Kevin Fulton - he used to train college athletes and even some Olympians on the East Coast. But he decided he wanted to leave the big city and settle down on a farm in Nebraska.
[Kevin Fulton/Trainer]
"I grew up on a farm and this is the life that I like and it's great because I have an opportunity to have careers in both areas that I enjoy, and that's strength training, competitive lifting and then farming."
[Andrea Gallagher]
Kevin doesn't charge these girls a dime for his services…he only asks that they pitch in on his farm when he needs it. On this particular day, some of the girls fed the horses, while others helped out with odds and ends.
[Kevin Fulton]
"They help me a lot with laying out irrigation pipe, picking it up and helping me pick up small square bales of hay. I guess those are some of the main things…."
[Jamie Goodner]
"We went and walked through the fields and picked up all the trash the construction people have left and that's one of the jobs we did last week."
[Andrea Gallagher]
Most of these girls work plenty around their own farms, so this kind of work is nothing new….. And they realize how fortunate they are to have this kind of trainer at their fingertips.
[Lindsey Hartman/Ansley]
"yeah, it's worth it, in fact, I don't think we do enough for him. We could do a lot more."
[Andrea Gallagher]
But it was an eye-opener for some of them to come here and find out they would train inside an old barn.
[Peggy Deaver]
"I wasn't really expecting to lift in a barn. I figured it would be something else.."
[Kevin]
"Some of them drive on dirt roads and we don't have a very fancy setup here and they wouldn't do that if they weren't motivated."
[Andrea Gallagher]
This barn has turned out to be a popular place…Kevin has a waiting list with dozens of teenagers who want to train with him….these girls come from all over…Ansley, Litchfield, Sargent - even Loup City. Tracy Sutton has to drive almost an hour each way just to get here.
[Tracy Sutton]
"It's 45 minutes one way so that's kind of, getting motivated to come here is the hardest part for me, but I'm always glad that I come and, I don't know, it's really worth it."
[Andrea Gallagher]
The girls competed in the USA Powerlifting Women's National Championships in Chicago last February. They walked away with 2 first place titles, 2 second places and one third place….not bad for rookies.
[Kevin Fulton]
"The US Women's National Team Coach talked to me and told me that several of these girls have potential to be on the US National teams if they want to continue training and it's just a matter of dedicating themselves and setting goals like we do and if they want to do it I think there is potential for that."
[Peggy Deaver]
"IT was really exciting, it was in Chicago and I've never been there before and it was only my 2nd meet and it was really fun to go there and see all the women there and I was really amazed by all the stuff they could lift."
[Lindsey]
"I went in as an underdog, I had a girl in my class who was 20 lbs ahead of me and I ended up beating her by quite a bit, but the only disappointing part of the meet was I failed in my attempt for the American record by the judging."
[Andrea Gallagher]
Goals are extremely important for these girls and their coach. They keep track of their progress on this board.
[Kevin]
"I make these kids turn in goals and hand them in. That's a big part of our program. It all centers on motivating the kids and pushing them beyond what they think they could ever do."
[Andrea Gallagher]
All of this strength can be intimidating for their male classmates.
[Tracy sutton]
"They just give me a hard time, they don't….I don't think they're seriously scared of me, but they act like they are."
[Jamie Goodner]
"During gym class we all lift weights together and they look to see how much I put on, but they don't bother me a whole lot."
[Lindsey]
"They give me crap a lot, sometimes I take it seriously and other times I know they're joking."
[Andrea Gallagher]
The youngest lifter is 13-year old Sara Jaeschke She's only in 7th grade. But she's got another claim to fame - she's the first female football player in Loup City.
[Sara Jaeschke/Loup City]
"I decided to try it because no one else has ever done it, and all the boys don't think a girl can play football, so I just thought it would be a cool thing to do and did it."
[Andrea Gallagher]
On this particular day, the female arm wrestling champion of the world is also training with the girls. She's a friend of Kevin's and comes out when she gets the chance.
[Mary McConnaughey/Arm Wrestling Champion]
"Almost all of Kevin's high school girls lift more than I do and I'm twice the size, in some cases, 3 times the size, it's because they train hard and they've been trained by someone who really knows the sport."
[Andrea Gallagher]
Kevin says its much more rewarding to train athletes this age than even the Olympians he used to train.
[Kevin]
"I get more satisfaction out of training these athletes than I ever did, and I've traveled to Madison Square Garden and watched athletes, you know, compete that I've worked with, but I have more satisfaction out of watching Litchfield win the state championship in football and in basketball and so many other schools as well."
[Andrea Gallagher]
Natural talent will only take you so far, Kevin says motivation is the key to success in this sport.
[Jamie]
"Some nights I may not want to come here but I have to be determined, but if I don't get the lift on the first try, I know I can do it again and that I will eventually get it if I keep trying."
[Lindsey]
"Kevin's awesome, he's a great guy, I've grown to love the guy myself I think."
[Andrea Gallagher]
This sport isn't unique to rural Nebraska….There's also a Lincoln woman who holds a number of powerlifting records….Weighing in at only 97 pounds, Erin Crapo (Cray-po) is much more powerful than she seems. Unlike the other women, she never participated in a sport before she took up powerlifting a few years ago.
[Erin Crapo/Powerlifter]
"It gives me a way out, sometimes, if I'm frustrated, if I've had a bad day I can go lift weights. I can yell and scream and do anything I want to and it doesn't really matter and it does my body good and it does my mind good."
[Andrea Gallagher]
Crapo is a senior at the University of Nebraska - Lincoln and hopes to go to medical school in the fall. She took up this sport in high school, and loves competing.
[Erin]
"Powerlifting is not bodybuilding and it's not weightlifting. There's a difference between the 3 things, and powerlifting if you're competing - you train to compete, you don't train to get the big muscles, all you do if you get big muscles is add weight and you don't want to go out of your weight class."
[Andrea Gallagher]
Erin can deadlift 225 pounds, squat 209 pounds and bench 106 pounds. She holds the teenage world records in these categories and hopes to compete at an international competition in Venezuela this fall.
Her trainer is Jim Hart….he used to compete himself, but now dedicates his time to coaching others. He's helped many lifters earn more than 50 national and world titles over the years.
[Jim Hart/Coach]
"Some women that have never done any other sports because they're not tall enough or fast enough, this is a good sport for them because they compete within their weight class, compete against people their own size, also some women don't compete in high school sports, this gives them something else to do."
[Andrea Gallagher]
Even though she's only 21-years old now - Erin says Powerlifting will be a part of her life for as long as she can physically handle it.
[Erin Crapo]
"I'll be doing this when I'm 85. I just came back from women's nationals and we had several lifters that were over 60. There are 80-year old lifters. This is something anybody can do - anybody - so that makes it a really unique sport."
[Andrea Gallagher]
A unique sport that's putting Nebraska on the map……….Reporting for Statewide, I'm Andrea Gallagher.
FACTOID: Many of these women will compete in the Cornhusker State Games this July.