Lauren Fisher at the 2014 Junior World Championship

Those female weightlifters sure are bulky, right, ladies?

Earlier, I wrote about CrossFit athlete Lauren Fisher sweeping her weight class at the 2014 USA Weightlifting Junior National Championship.  She also earned the title "Best Female Lifter" at that competition.  It would be an amazing accomplishment for anyone, but it's even more impressive for
Ms Fisher, because she's not exclusively an Olympic weightlifter.

“I do a lot of Olympic lifting, but I don’t do as much as most of these lifters do.” ~ Lauren Fisher

Unfortunately, the US is not as competitive on the world weightlifting stage as a country of its size should be.  On the men's side, I think that's primarily because the most genetically gifted power athletes in the US go to the NFL (where they stand to make millions) not to the USAW (where they'd have to keep a "day job" [night job?] to make ends meet).

Of course, there is no women's equivalent of the NFL, so that reason may be invalid.



This month, Ms Fisher competed at the Junior World Championship of Weightlifting.  She took 10th in the 63 kg (138.6 lb) weight class.  She weighed in at 60.53 kg (133.17 lb), and is probably the only woman I've ever read complain about losing weight.

60.15... I'm losing weight here @cjinvictus! 😩
— Lauren Fisher (@ltfisher12) June 20, 2014

Ms Fishers lifts went as follows:

• Snatch: 75 kg (165 lb), 79 kg (173.8 lb) [fail], 79 kg (173.8 lb) [fail]
• Clean and jerk: 102 kg (224.4 lb), 107 kg (235.4 lb), 110 kg (242 lb)
• Total: 185 kg (407 lb) 

This time, her American teammate, Martha Ann Rogers, beat her by one place.  Ms Rogers's lifts went as follows:

• Snatch: 88 kg (193.6 lb), 91 kg (200.2 lb) [fail], 91 kg (200.2 lb) [fail]
• Clean and jerk: 98 kg (215.6 lb), 102 kg (224.4 lb), 104 kg (228.8 lb) [fail]
• Total: 190 kg (418 lb)

The first place finisher was Diana Akhmetova of Russia (big surprise).  Her lifts went as follows:

• Snatch: 102 kg (224.4 lb), 106 kg (233.2 lb), 108 kg (237.6 lb)
• Clean and jerk: 124 kg (272.8 lb), 126 kg (277.2 lb), 128 (281.6 lb)
• Total: 236 kg (519.2 lb)

See what I mean about the US not being as competitive as other countries in weightlifting?  Still, a 10th place finish in a world championship is outstanding, and even more so for someone who doesn't specialize in the sport.

Here's a video clip of Ms Fisher's opening clean and jerk.



This clip is of her final clean and jerk.


Holding 242 lb overhead isn't easy when you weigh a mere 133 lb.  Notice how her midsection moves around as she waits for the judges to give her the signal that she executed a good lift.  Every muscle underneath the bar (i.e., all of them) is fighting to keep the bar balanced over her midline, which is a perfect example of why isolation movements waste your time.

Ms Fisher recently placed third in the 2014 CrossFit Southern California Regional competition, and qualified for the CrossFit Games.  Here's a short video clip of highlights from the competition.



You can watch a much longer summary here.



All the current elite CrossFit athletes transitioned into CrossFit after competing in some other sport.  Most of the top female athletes are former gymnasts.  Lauren Fisher is the first of a new generation of elite CrossFit athletes.  She started training with CrossFit when she was 12.  She used to play soccer and other sports back then.  She's been training exclusively with CrossFit since she was 16.  Now at 20, she's one of the best examples of CrossFit's efficacy as a training program.  The next few years should be exciting, as more kids who grew up training with CrossFit make it onto the international stage.

UPDATE: The Olympic weightlifting enthusiasts at Hokkgrip posted two more videos of Ms Fisher on their Instagram page.