Sophomore Emily Larrivee and alumni Abby Kicklighter have each accomplished a task as female weightlifters.
Kicklighter got a scholarship to Marian University in Indianapolis for weightlifting and Larrivee advanced to Worlds.
“Being offered a scholarship was amazing, I felt like I was doing something right, and it made me feel really excited. I was being given the opportunity to have a career in weightlifting,” Kicklighter said.
Larrivee advanced through Hyrox, a subcategory of CrossFit.
“It’s a component of CrossFit, so CrossFit as a whole is anything physical thrown at you and you don’t know the workout until the day of. For the Hyrox one, which is the one I qualified for Worlds through, it was a preset workout,” Larrivee said.
Weightlifting is not offered as a scholarship for many schools, but Marian was one of the few.
“It gave me the opportunity to be a part of a great team and to be able to attend an excellent school such as Marian. I love the team, the school, the people. It’s been a great experience thus far,” Kicklighter said.
While in the Hyrox competition, waves of different age groups get timed as they complete the workout. Larrivee competed among different age groups as she went through.
“It’s really cool there like the ladies, they’re beasts. They’re awesome. They’re tough, but they’ll be there with their kids with their family. I had a grandma beat me, but she wasn’t in my age group. She still beat me. It’s awesome. It’s a really fun atmosphere,” Larrivee said.
Weightlifting is a fun but competitive sport that helps athletes improve their strength.
“I wanted to do weightlifting because I am a competitive person. My coach was also a huge factor in this. He’s always encouraged me to become stronger and has always wanted what’s best for me,” said Kicklighter. “So when he noticed I was excelling in the lifting portion of CrossFit, which is what I originally started with, rather than the metcon portion, he pushed me to compete and focus on weightlifting.”
Larrivee joined the competition without any expectations, entering as a 16 year old because she was too young for it. After advancing, she will not actually go to Worlds because it is too far away.
“So you had to get first in your age group, and mine was the 16-24. I did the competition for fun. It was my first in person competition. I can just do it. And I won, but I’m not going to end up going to Germany, which is where Worlds is,” Larrivee said.
Although she is not going to Worlds, Larrivee will continue training in hopes of eventually making the CrossFit games.
“My end goal for a couple years from now is I want to qualify for the CrossFit games. So that would be against like 1,000 people, and that’s a lot in order to qualify for,” Larrivee said.