Topic: News: Kyle Ernst now free of cancer, targets 2012 Olympics

[Chris Ⓐ LeRoux]

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Kyle Ernst now free of cancer, targets 2012 Olympics
By Ed Miller

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Weightlifter Kyle Ernst, a graduate of Great Bridge High School,
works out at his parents’ five-acre spread near San Antonio,
where the family moved about a year ago.

CHESAPEAKE

To say Kyle Ernst lifts weights until the cows come home would not be exactly accurate. The cows are always home at his parents’ five-acre spread in the hill country near San Antonio.

Occasionally, while the 230-pound Ernst is performing his Olympic-style lifts, the family’s Texas longhorns – Martha and Martini – will amble over and watch, beef on the hoof staring down beef on the lifting apron.

It’s a far cry from the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, where Ernst spent most of the past year, training and attending college at the same time he was being treated for melanoma, the most serious form of skin cancer.

It was a difficult year for the Great Bridge graduate, full of highs and lows. The thrill of being at the training center wore off when homesickness set in. A good friend from Great Bridge, Paul Harris, was killed in an auto accident last September, sending Ernst into an emotional tailspin. He went on anti-depressants for a while, which “helped me wake up in the morning,” he said.

Then there was his cancer treatment. Ernst mixed and administered his own chemotherapy shots three times a week. For a while, he got the dosage wrong and had a bad reaction, breaking out in a rash, and losing weight and strength. He continued training, but couldn’t lift nearly as much as he had as a senior at Great Bridge, when he set U.S. records for his age group in both the snatch and the clean and jerk.

“Mentally, it was tough,” recalled Ernst, whose parents moved to Texas about a year ago. “You’d have other people saying, 'Oh, he doesn’t deserve to be here.’ ”

Ernst needed a break, and before his final chemotherapy shot in March, he flew to his parents’ home in Texas to celebrate the end of his year-long treatment. When he lifted his shirt to give himself one final shot in the hip, his mother, Jordis, was there to capture the moment.

Ernst headed back to Colorado to finish school, but decided not to return to the training center. He’s heading to Texas A&M University this month, where he’ll be just three hours from his parents and closer to the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, about two hours away.

M.D. Anderson was where Ernst and his family went for a second opinion after Ernst was diagnosed with melanoma in December 2005, shortly after he set records in the snatch and clean and jerk at a meet in Puerto Rico.

Jordis Ernst noticed a strange-looking mole on her son’s back before that meet. They waited until after he returned from Puerto Rico to have a doctor look at it.

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After a workout of lifting, Kyle Ernst injects himself with Interferon at the family home in Chesapeake last year.
Now cancer-free and after nearly a year at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs,
Ernst is heading to Texas A&M, where he’ll be closer to his parents. Photo by Bill Tiernan.

The melanoma had spread to Ernst’s lymph nodes. He had surgery and then began an aggressive course of treatment that sapped his strength.

Ernst pushed through the sickness, training as often as he could. USA Weightlifting, the national organization that had offered him a spot in its elite resident training program, kept its promise and brought him to Colorado Springs.

Ernst knew it would be difficult. He had seven months of treatment to go when he arrived in Colorado last August.

It was harder than he’d thought.

Ernst had to adapt to a new style of training with new coaches. He found the round-the-clock training table too much of a temptation, and his weight ballooned. Then it crashed after he nearly doubled his chemotherapy dosage by accident.

He had teammates, but few peers. His roommate, another lifter, was about 10 years older. At 18, he was the youngest athlete there, the only one juggling training and a full college class load. He didn’t enjoy being a day student at the University of Colorado’s Colorado Springs campus. He wanted the full college experience.

Despite it all, Ernst said he’s glad he went to Colorado. He learned a lot about the technical side of his sport, and training with other elite lifters kept him motivated.

“It was the best place for him to be for the past year,” Jordis Ernst said. “Because I’m sure on some days, when he felt really bad from the treatment, he was pushed by the coaches and the other athletes.”

Ernst will have to push himself in Texas, which he admits will be a challenge. He’s hoping to get permission to train with the varsity athletes at Texas A&M. The school has no Olympic weightlifting team.

Last week, he was back in Chesapeake, training at the home of his first coach, Chris Wilkes, who introduced him to the sport as an eighth-grader.

Cancer-free and four months removed from his last treatment, Ernst is slowly regaining strength and stamina. In Puerto Rico nearly two years ago, he lifted 141 kilos (310 pounds) in the snatch and 181 kilos (398 pounds) in the clean and jerk. He hasn’t approached those totals since. At his worst in Colorado, he struggled to lift 110 kilos in the snatch, 145 in the clean and jerk.

Training with other members of Wilkes’ team last week, Ernst easily handled 130 kilos in the snatch, 167 in the clean and jerk. At a meet in Norfolk last weekend, he lifted 132 and 168, enough to qualify him for the American Open in December, one of the sport’s big annual meets.

“That’s definitely a lot better than he’s done in the past year,” Wilkes said.

Jordis Ernst said she’s not overly concerned about her son’s lifting totals. Those should come in time. The 2012 Olympics remain Ernst’s goal.

As a mother, she’s glad to have her son healthy and back close to home.

“I lived with this fear cloud all the time, until I was able to have my son back at home with me and see how positive and healthy he really is,” she said.

And strong, she added.