GCU Weightlifting Society members represent Team Scotland at Commonwealth Powerlifting Championships
Students from the GCU Weightlifting Society have represented Scotland at an international competition in South Africa as part of the Commonwealth Powerlifting Championships 2024.
On October 4 to October 13, students Sammie Smith, Gemma Miller, Alisdair Wilson and Amy Craig flew out to Sun City in South Africa to represent Team Scotland on an international stage.
For students Sammie and Gemma, this was their first ever international competition after trying powerlifting for the first time a year ago. Sammie competed in the Juniors Under 63kg category, resulting in a Bronze medal win. Gemma competed in the Juniors 84kg+ category and walked away with a Silver medal.
In total, Team Scotland walked away with 143 medals and resulted in 22 Scottish athletes becoming Commonwealth Powerlifting Champions.
Reflecting back on their short powerlifting journeys, Sammie and Gemma owe a lot of their thanks to the support of the GCU Weightlifting Society:
How did your powerlifting journeys start?
Gemma Miller: “Over lockdown, obviously people were getting their workouts from YouTube videos but unfortunately that lead me down a bit of a rabbit hole which lead to disordered eating. It left me feeling really weak and one day I thought “I don’t want to feel weak anymore”. I decided, rather than use the gym to punish myself, use the gym to build myself up again and become stronger.
I managed to recover from my eating disorder but found that I then wasn’t going to the gym as much, which is something I wanted to change. I decided to join the GCU Weightlifting Club because I wanted to make friends that had the same mindset as me; just coming to the gym and having some fun. It was there that the President pointed out that I was quite strong and if I had ever thought about doing powerlifting. I said that I hadn’t, but from there he started going through the basics of it and I discovered that I found it really fun. That was around a year ago and I got into competing through the ‘mock meets’ that we do between the different Glasgow universities. I’ve honestly never looked back, I’ve enjoyed it so much and want to just keep doing more of it.
Sammie Sulek: “My situation is similar to Gemma’s. I lost my best friend when I was 18 who also had an eating disorder, and I ended up adopting the same traits as her. I initially started to go to the gym to lose weight and essentially do more damage, focusing on doing things like cardio exercises. One day I tried using a different machine and some weight lifting, which helped me discover that the lifts I liked doing were what mainly made up the sport of Powerlifting. This included squat benching and deadlifts.
I decided to look into it more and look for clubs, which is how I found the GCU Weightlifting Society. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to join or not, so I actually did a coin toss and it led to me joining it. I really didn’t want to at first since I hate doing new things, but it ended up being really fun. Same as Gemma, other members realised that I was also quite strong and suggested that I competed as well. I started training in October and started officially competing by January, so only within a few months. I came 2nd in my first competition and since then, it’s been an upward trend. I’ve been doing it for a year now and I would have never imagined being at this point when I first started.
You’ll find that a lot of people in the sport have experienced eating disorders or mental health issues. I tend to find that people that experience these issues can easily become obsessed with things, and with us I feel that we have turned that obsession into something healthier like training. We really do put everything into our training, and now here we are!”
You’ve both came a long way in such a short space of time. Is this something that you ever expected?
Gemma: “It’s crazy. I only trained for around a year before I started competing, so it’s all happened very quickly. As Sammie said, we all very much come from similar backgrounds and understand where we’re all coming from so it means we really push each other to do better. It’s a really great sense of community.
Sammie: “This really has made my university experience for me. Before the course I’m doing now, I did Nursing and changed to Biomedical Sciences but I feel like I started enjoying university more once I joined the GCU Weightlifting Society.”
Tell us about the competition criteria, how did the opportunity come about for you both?:
Sammie: “To enter a competition like this you have to apply with a certain amount, depending on which weight class you’re in. At my first competition, I had already met the criteria with my overall lift weight total. My coach asked me if I was going to apply to be on Team Scotland, which I did because I realised I had met their criteria. However, I really didn’t expect anything to come from it!
I told Gemma about it and suggested that she should apply too. She wasn’t sure at first, but I encouraged her to try it anyway. If we didn’t get in, it’s okay because we have only been training for a short while anyway.
I put it out of my mind for the next couple of months and then one day I was about to leave for work when I received an email letting me know that I was accepted onto Team Scotland! I couldn’t believe it, and the Gemma sent me her email as well – we were both so happy! It then started to sink I that we could be representing our country in South Africa, after only doing two competitions in my life. Now, we were doing an international competition which most people would do after years of training. Imposter syndrome definitely set in at that point!”
Gemma: “I got my qualifying total after my third competition, which at that point meant that I could compete in BUCS (British University and Colleges Sport) Powerlifting Championships. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to compete due to a clash with my exam timetable.
To go from Scottish competitions to receiving the Team Scotland email is just crazy. The furthest I have travelled to for a competition is Inverness, never mind another continent! It was an amazing feeling knowing that I could represent the country that I’m so proud to live in.”
Sammie: “It’s not often that athletes get to represent Scotland, usually it would be to represent Team GB which will be made of mainly English athletes due to the size of the country. Walking onto the platform wearing Scotland on your outfit was amazing, we felt so patriotic!
I was so emotional once the competition was finished. In the last few months of my training, I actually got a back injury and had to ask my physio if she thought I should drop out or not. I had 12 weeks to go, and she suggested that I kept going. This just meant that most of my training was around rehab, so I only had one actual training block before the competition. I went in with the mindset that, even if I come last, I still went there and did it.”
Did having the support of family and friends there have an impact?
Sammie: “I made a joke to my mum about coming to South Africa to see me compete, bearing in mind that my parents have ever seen me do a competition before. Both my parents ended up surprising me one day with the news that they’d be coming to South Africa, which also meant they could make a holiday out of it.
My best friend also messaged me one day asking “How would you feel if I came with you to South Africa as well?” so she ended up coming along with my parents too. They brought a huge sign with them, which was embarrassingly large! They were up at the crack of dawn to watch me because my lifts were scheduled for early in the day.
The atmosphere during my lift was immense. They always say that Team Scotland always have the best crowds and fans, so there is always a lot of hype when it’s time for Team Scotland’s turn. My parents were screaming for me, it was so nice having them there.
While we were there, we got to do a safari, zip-lining experience and just have a nice holiday. Before we knew it, we were back in Glasgow for uni again!”
What advice would you give to anyone who is looking to get into weightlifting or powerlifting for the first time?
Sammie: “Just do it! If you try it and don’t like it, you can just stop. There’s no pressure to commit to it if you’re not enjoying it. We often have people enquire about joining the GCU Weightlifting Society that have no weightlifting experience or had even been in a gym before, everyone is welcome.
Everyone in the society come from a variety of levels, you don’t have to be an experienced weight lifter. It’s a self-led environment but the good thing about the society is that the support is always there. The more experienced members are always on hand to answer any questions or give any tips.”
Gemma: “The society has a mixture of backgrounds and levels. Some have been weightlifting for years and therefore, the new members have access to this wealth of knowledge. I get a lot of joy from teaching people who are new to it and seeing them succeed. I remember the feeling of achieving my first proper lift so it’s so nice to witness those moments for people.”
By Rachael McAlonan
Got a SCEBE or GSBS story? Email me at Rachael.McAlonan@gcu.ac.uk or connect with me on social media