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| American female weightlifter setting new standards
By Mark Alesia
Barbie dolls found their way into soccer uniforms after the Women's World Cup. But is America ready for Heavyweight Olympic Power-Lifting Barbie?
Flexibility is essential in the sport, and, for some, in accepting 17-year-old U.S. Olympic medal hopeful Cheryl Haworth for who she is: a world-class female athlete who weighs 292 pounds.
"People ask me to lift them all the time," said Haworth, the fourth-place finisher in last year's world championships. "I say, 'If you were on a barbell, I could.'" Women's weightlifting will be an Olympic sport for the first time in Sydney this summer. But for now, it seems, Haworth is considered mostly a cultural curiosity, a veteran of The Today Show, The Tonight Show and Live With Regis and Kathie Lee. But she is also an artist of some local repute, specializing in portraits using an ebony pencil, and a can't-miss, world-record holder of the future in weightlifting. In a shape-obsessed society, she's a remarkably self-assured XXL, especially for a kid who just finished her junior year of high school. "I know it's unusual, and a lot of 17-year-olds don't weigh 300 pounds," Haworth said. "What I do goes really well with what I look like. I know I wasn't the right size or shape for a lot of things. I didn't let that bother me. I looked beyond it." Lifting conservatively at the world championships to ensure more individual American slots in the Olympics, she hoisted 253 pounds in the snatch and 303 in the clean and jerk. Her American records in those events are 264 pounds in the snatch and 319 in the clean and jerk. Weightlifters tend to improve into their 30s, and Haworth is the youngest woman in the top 25 of the world rankings by two years. She is from Savannah, Ga., a weightlifting hotbed. Her father, Robert, a former wrestler at the University of Nebraska, took her to a gym four years ago because he thought it might help her in softball. She was an outfielder and third baseman. As someone who used to win arm-wrestling contests against boys on the school bus, it didn't take Haworth long to establish herself as a star. She flew to Arizona for her first meet, the junior nationals, and won. She was hooked. She liked the traveling. She liked the winning. "I really enjoy the attention, not only for me but for the sport," Haworth said. Her mother Sheila lifts in Master's competitions, but nobody in Haworth's family would be considered oversized. Haworth described her 14-year-old sister Katie as tall and thin. She said her 19-year-old sister Beth is 5-foot-7, 130 pounds, with especially strong abdominal muscles. "She has her little six-pack and she's fast and plays soccer," Haworth said.
Other female weightlifters have talked about family members looking skeptically at their athletic pursuit. Not Haworth's father. "He's big into sports," Haworth said. "All he had is girls. He's behind us 100 percent." Haworth started out as a sickly child, twice going to the hospital with pneumonia. Now 5-9, she grew and gained weight rapidly. Her mother was concerned but decided it was fine as long as Haworth was active and eating good food. She definitely checked in on the first category. On the second, she was like any other teen-ager. In discussing her sport, Haworth is quick to note her athleticism, stressing how flexible and quick she is for her size. Part of her training involves jumping onto boxes larger than chairs and landing in a squat position. In some other countries, Olympic weightlifters are revered as stars. The Atlanta Olympics had Naim 'Pocket Hercules' Suleymanoglu of Turkey. In the U.S., Haworth is often asked how much she bench presses, which is like asking Itzhak Pearlman to play a little something on the harmonica. Others wonder about drugs. "I don't understand how people get away with it anymore," Haworth said. "I get tested once a month. If I did (drugs), I'd be lifting a lot more than I am." Her escape is art. When she's done weightlifting, her next stop might be the Savannah College of Art and Design. "If I don't feel like lifting weights, I go draw," she said. "If I don't feel like drawing, I lift weights." No American male weightlifter finished higher than 15th in last year's world championships. For the men, an Olympic medal is out of the question. Haworth could easily get the bronze. She said she's enjoying herself. "I was never discouraged about being big," Haworth said. "It just took a little extra work to find out what I was good at." |
