This weightlifter hopes to show women it's empowering to be strong

Kayla Shepard wasn’t always an international weightlifting competitor.

In her teens, she competed at a high level in Snowboard Cross.

Despite her winter sports focus, she noticed how much fun and how strong her mom was becoming by going to a CrossFit gym and lifting weights.

Then, at around 13, she started lifting weights, too.

“Now, I look back and think of how much confidence I gained as a young woman being in a strength sport and being able to be confident and have strong muscles,” she told Kelowna10 during a training session at Common Ground gym.

“I like the idea of being strong and lifting with the boys and like, trying to beat them,” she said with a chuckle. She added how it often surprises men when they see how much one small woman can lift.

Now, at the age of 24, she has tested her strength at three senior national championships, the most recent in May in Kelowna where she earned a silver medal. She also placed third overall and second in the clean-and-jerk at a national competition earlier this year in Toronto.

Due to her impressive national performances, she was invited by the Canadian Weightlifting Federation to join the team at the Pan American Championships in Bogotá at the end of July.

“I would have liked to have performed better, but at the same time, it’s hard to put too much expectation on my first international competition,” Shepard said. “I was really proud of my efforts … all-in-all it was a really great experience.”

Back on home soil, she wasted no time returning to the gym to keep her skills sharp during the off-season. Her goal is to qualify for the world championships in 2023.

After a warmup that included stretches and mobility work, she practiced the snatch; a lift where a person propels a weighted barbell from the ground and over their head in one explosive motion.

Shepard is a member of the Viking’s Weightlifting Club and noticed some of the newer members are girls starting out at around the same age she did. She hopes her example will keep young women in a sport that is historically male dominated.

“It’s hard to describe the feeling of being really strong and accomplishing something that you work really hard for,” she said. “It’s really empowering for women to see how strong they are and to see their potential when the media and the mainstream is telling them to be smaller and skinnier, when it’s really cool to be strong.”

Correction: This article was edited on Aug. 12 to clarify that Kayla Shepard is not an Olympic level weightlifter. While the sport is called Olympic Weightlifting, Shepard has never competed at the Olympics.