Topic: News: 2008 USA Olympic Trials

[Chris Ⓐ LeRoux]

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Haworth makes third Olympic team
Savannah's other hopeful, Brower, struggles
By Adam Van Brimmer

ATLANTA - Cheryl Haworth came to the U.S. Olympic weightlifting trials with the Big Bad Wolf's attitude.

She would huff and puff and blow the other contenders away.

Turns out the two-time Olympian barely needed to exhale.

Haworth easily made the U.S. team. She needed just one lift in the clean and jerk to beat out former teammate and best friend Cara Heads for the final spot. Haworth didn't even bother with her final two attempts, withdrawing from the competition.

"Judging by the way those weights felt on the platform, I'm a lot stronger now than even I thought I was," Haworth said. "Or at least a lot stronger than I had displayed to everyone else."

Haworth looked like a sandbagger Saturday, so easily did she better her performance from her last two major competitions. She lifted 15 more kilos (33 pounds) Saturday than she did at last September's world championships and 21 more kilos (46.2 pounds) than she did at the national championships earlier this year.

A lingering back injury slowed her in those previous meets, however. She basically lifted just enough at the worlds to help the U.S. qualify for Olympic slots and just enough at nationals to make the trials competition.

Now healthy, she's ready to take her "vengeance" this August in China.

"I have to bring it to some of these ladies who have gotten comfortable in their one, two and three spots the last few years," Haworth said. "I think a lot of international athletes have forgotten about me. I'm going to make them remember."

Haworth certainly reminded her countrymen of what's made her America's top female weightlifter over the last decade. Ex-Team Savannah member Heads, a member of the 2000 Olympic team and an alternate in 2004, could tell Haworth was ready to compete during warm-ups.

"Ooh, she's on," Heads recalled saying. "That's how you lift the weight when you're going out to make the Olympic team."

Brower falls short

Savannah's other Olympic hopeful, Henry Brower, didn't fare as well in the trials. He came in needing to beat out three lifters to claim a spot. But he failed to make his heaviest attempt in the snatch, then ripped open a callous on his hand during his second clean and jerk try. That prevented him from going for a heavier weight on his final lift.

His 286-kilo total (629.2 pounds) was less than he lifted at the national championships earlier this year.

"I'm not too disappointed because I did the best I could, and that's all I can ask for," said Brower, the top American lifter in the 69-kilo (maximum 151 pounds) weight class. "You do that and let everything else take care of itself."

Haworth, meanwhile, was prepared to do whatever was necessary to make the team. She set targets of 115 kilos (253 pounds) in the snatch and 145 kilos (319 pounds) in the clean and jerk during training. Hit those at the trials, she thought, and she would definitely make the team.

She came within a kilo of her snatch goal - and admitted she could have gone for plenty more. She went after only what she needed to qualify in the clean and jerk: 139 kilos (305.8 pounds).

Haworth plans on attempting much heavier weights in the Olympics. Her personal snatch record is 128 kilos and she's lifted 161 kilos in the clean and jerk. That's 30 pounds more in the snatch and 35 pounds more in the clean and jerk than she lifted Saturday.

"I'm ready to get really strong and go and compete the way I know how," said Haworth, a bronze medalist at the 2000 Sydney Games. "The last two years I didn't because I was so injured. My goal is to stay healthy and go get a medal. And I don't think I'll have any trouble at all" doing that.

U.S. Olympic Weightlifting Trials

Savannah connection

Cheryl Haworth

Snatch: 114 kilos (250.8 pounds)

Clean & jerk: 139 kilos (305.8 pounds)

Total: 253 kilos (556.6 pounds)

Note: Haworth's first clean and jerk attempt qualified her for the Olympic team, so the Savannah native elected to pass on her final two attempts and withdraw.

Cara Heads

Snatch: 94 kilos (206.8 pounds)

Clean & jerk: 123 kilos (270.6 pounds)

Total: 217 kilos (477.4 pounds)

Note: The former Team Savannah member improved her national ranking from seventh to fifth and will be the alternate for the Olympic team. Heads was also the alternate in 2004 after competing in the 2000 Games. She finished seventh in her weight class at those Olympics.

Henry Brower

Snatch: 126 kilos (277.2 pounds)

Clean & Jerk: 160 kilos (352 pounds)

Total: 286 kilos (629.2 pounds)

Note: Savannah's Brower fell seven kilos short of his total from the national championships earlier this year. He attempted a 130-kilo lift in the snatch, which would have matched a personal record, and a ripped callous on his second clean and jerk attempt prevented him from going for more weight on his final lift.

Cheryl Haworth

Snatch: 114 kilos (250.8 pounds)

Clean & jerk: 139 kilos (305.8 pounds)

Total: 253 kilos (556.6 pounds)

Henry Brower

Snatch: 126 kilos (277.2 pounds)

Clean & Jerk: 160 kilos (352 pounds)

Total: 286 kilos (629.2 pounds)

Note: Savannah's Brower fell seven kilos short of his total from the national championships earlier this year.

[Chris Ⓐ LeRoux]

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Sisto hopes to make waves at Olympic Trials

EDITOR'S NOTE: Eliot, Maine's Gwendolyn Sisto competed in this weekend's U.S. Olympic Weightlifting Trials, which ended Saturday. Sisto was not one of the four women to qualify for the Olympic team.

The following is a story from a May 10 interview, as she prepared for the Trials.

ELIOT, Maine — Gwendolyn Sisto had a home-court advantage, of sorts, at this weekend's U.S. Olympic Weightlifting trials. As an graduate of Georgia Tech, the competition was to be held on her alma mater's campus at the Ferst Center for the Arts, where Sisto has performed before — just not as a weight lifter.

"I was in the Georgia Tech chamber orchestra," said Sisto. "The stage I played on will be where I'm lifting."

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Gwen Sisto of Eliot, Maine, works out in her training room as she prepares for the USA Olympic weighlifting trials. Photo by Scott Baker

This weekend, Sisto, 25, was trying for a shot at Olympic Glory. It hasn't been an easy road for Sisto, who, in addition to training for the Olympic Trials, works full-time at General Electric in Lynn, Mass., attends graduate classes for seven hours a week at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and raises a 4-year-old daughter with her husband and coach, Ivan Rojas.

"I'm ranked 20th in the trials," Sisto said. "If I do my best work, I'd probably be 12th. If I have an awesome day and lift to my true potential, I can do well."

Rojas, himself a two-time Olympic weightlifter for his native Bolivia (1988 and 1992), said that his wife has the physical skills to make the Olympic team. What happens this weekend depends largely on her mental attitude when it's her time to compete.

"Technically, she's there," Rojas said. "It's up to what she comes there with (points to head)."

Sisto isn't worried about not being focused come competition time. She is, after all, the mother of a 4-year old daughter who is often present at her mother's training sessions at the family's home gym in Eliot.

"When you're in a competition mindset, you're really focused," Sisto said. "You don't even feel the lift. Once you touch the bar, it's only like two seconds you need to make the lift. It's a matter of controlling (the bar) up."

Sisto said she's experienced tremendous improvement in the two years since she won the National Collegiate Championship in Indiana in her 53-kilogram weight class.

"Weightlifting is cumulative improvement over time," she said. "You hit some sort of breaking point. That's what I like about weightlifting. You can't control what your opponent does. In weightlifting, it's all about you. You can play some head games with your opponents, but it's up to you to do the best you can every day."

A lot of couples wish they could spend more time together, but Rojas and Sisto do plenty of that in their lengthy workouts together. Rojas said that it is important for their training sessions to remain all business, however.

"She's not my wife when we're in here," Rojas said from the couple's home gym. "Sometimes she doesn't like that. Last week she moved tons of weight, fantastic. The next day she was tired, but I coached her and she went to the empty bar (without weights) and worked for two hours."

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Gwen Sisto of Eliot, Maine, trains for the U.S. Olympic weighlifting trials while her husband and trainer Ivan Rojas looks on. Photo by Scott Baker.

Last January, Sisto and Rojas traveled to Bulgaria, which they describe as a hotbed of weightlifting, to train with the Bulgarian national team. While there, they met Stefan Botev, a two-time world champion and Olympic gold medalist, and entered into a business partnership to sell Botev's brand of weightlifting shoes in the U.S.

For Sisto, this weekend's competition is the latest chapter of a sporting life that started when she was young. Early on, Sisto knew that team sports were not for her. She picked up weightlifting when she was 14, and is completely dedicated to the sport.

Now, she appreciates the black-and-white aspect of weightlifting.

"As a girl growing up, the only sports that were offered were either softball or soccer," Sisto said. "Team sports weren't really my thing. Weightlifting is clear cut. You know who wins. The only thing that can disqualify you is if any part of your body hits the platform. It's pretty clear when someone makes a lift. There aren't many B.S. calls."

Like any Olympic hopeful, Sisto eats a strict diet of mostly protein and few carbohydrates. She says she can't remember the last time she had a pizza.

"If I eat vegetables, it's broccoli and green beans," Sisto said. "I eat a lot of steak, but before a meet, I do a lot of protein shakes. If I ate steak every day, I'd probably have a heart attack."

Rojas believes that Sisto can excel in this weekend's competition, but recognizes that the window to become an Olympian is a small one.

"We just have to do our best," Rojas said. "She has to do the lifts of her life. We won't get this opportunity again for four years."

For Sisto, this weekend will be a challenge, but just one of many she faces on a regular basis.

"My dream is to make the Olympic team," Sisto said. "I wanted to be an Olympic champion since I was five. It's such a great opportunity. Doing well in weightlifting has helped me to do well in so many other things. Lifting weights makes going to MIT easy."

[Chris Ⓐ LeRoux]

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Best friends become rivals in Olympic trials
Ex-teammates Haworth and Heads compete against each other
By Adam Van Brimmer

ATLANTA - Cheryl Haworth and Cara Heads once lifted side-by-side.

In the Team Savannah gym.

On the U.S. Olympic team.

At the 2000 Sydney Games.

So just imagine how hard it was Saturday for the best friends to lift head-to-head for the final spot on the 2008 team.

"We both knew coming into this it would be a battle," Haworth said. "And if I was in fourth and she had the opportunity to knock me off, I would not expect anything less from her."

Heads almost did. She made a qualifying-caliber lift on her second clean-and-jerk attempt to move into the final qualifying slot, then attempted an American-record hoist on her final try.

She failed and became a sitting duck for Haworth, who lifted last. Had Heads made the record-breaker, Haworth admitted she would have felt pressure. Instead, Haworth easily knocked Heads off the team.

The conversation between the two after the meet went something like this.

"You were making me nervous with that last clean and jerk," Haworth told Heads. "You were going to push me a little harder."

"There you go," Heads replied. "It's a freebie."

Heads' voice held no trace of bitterness. She admitted she would have felt bad if she were the one to knock Haworth out of the Olympics. They talk by phone at least four times a week and trade text messages almost hourly. Haworth was in Heads' wedding even.

"Cara is like my idol," Haworth said. "Her attitude and her friendship have been totally invaluable. She's my favorite person on this planet."

The relationship dates to 1997, when Heads moved to Savannah to train under Michael Cohen. They appeared an odd pair: Heads, a black 20-year-old from Santa Monica, Calif., and Haworth, a 14-year-old wunderkind raised in Savannah.

Yet they made perfect training partners. The more mature Heads motivated the young phenom, and Haworth's innocence and fun-loving personality kept Heads loose and gave her perspective.

Three years into their unofficial partnership, they made the 2000 Olympic team together. Heads finished seventh in the Sydney Games; Haworth won bronze.

The two broke up following those Olympics. Heads calls separating from Haworth the hardest part about leaving Savannah to train at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo.

"I love her dearly," Heads said, "like the little sister I never had."

The two reunited at the training center last summer, and Heads helped Haworth deal with the back injury that dropped her from among the world's best weightlifters.

Heads "pepped talked her through it." She never doubted Haworth would reemerge as a medal contender for Beijing.

Heads just never thought it would come at her own expense.

"It's hard, but it helps to know somebody you love and care about so much is going instead," she said. "That softens the blow."

[Chris Ⓐ LeRoux]

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Escanaba’s Berube falls just short of making Olympic team
By Dennis Grall

ESCANABA — Jackie Berube’s dream of going to the Olympic Games in China ended by mere kilos Saturday.

Berube finished sixth at the Olympic Trial weightlifting in Atlanta, dropping two spots. The top four women advance to Beijing in August. The top seven are on the Olympic team.

The Escanaba missed her final attempt at 113 kilos in the clean and jerk, forcing her to settle for a lift of 109 kg.

“I knew when I didn’t make the clean and jerk I was going to get bumped,” Berube said Sunday in a telephone interview from the Atlanta airport. “I didn’t think I would get bumped down as far as I did.

“It was a very small percentage, less than a kilo off making the alternate. I was three kilos total from making the team. The door was open. I had the weight overhead to make the team, but I was out of position and couldn’t hold onto it.

Berube had a total lift of 196 kilos in the 58 kg division, but was only graded on one lift in snatch and two in clean and jerk. She lifted 87 kg in her one good snatch attempt.

“I made my snatches. The first and third lifts my elbow bent so even though I made it, I didn’t get credit for them,” she said. “That set me behind. My elbows are not straight all the way so that is a slight disadvantage to begin with.

“I made the snatch, but they called it a press. I needed to make more snatches and I needed to make the last clean and jerk. I had it up there and I just got out of position and couldn’t hold on,” she said of her attempt at 113 kg.

She is the American record holder in clean and jerk in the 58 kg weight division with 113 kg (248.6 pounds). She is also tops in total at 200 kg (440 pounds) and snatch (90 kg, 198 pounds).

Berube, who also competed in the 2000 and 2004 Olympic Trials, said she maintained her focus this time of taking one lift at a time.

“The only lift that was really bad was the first snatch. I got a little excited, a little nervous and didn’t get a good position,” she said. “After that, I felt great. It was my best Olympic Trials experience.”

With just one good snatch lift, Berube knew clean and jerk would determine her fate. “I made the 89 k snatch easy (in her final attempt) but the elbows bent and it didn’t count. Then I knew I had to do more clean and jerk than I had planned. I wouldn’t have needed as much in clean and jerk if I had made more in snatch.”

Berube said the elbow situation has been present since birth and noted other lifters have the same problem. “They just don’t lock out. I don’t have bone-on-bone lockout connection,” she said. “I have to rely more on strength to hold the bar over my head. It is just something I have to deal with.”

[Chris Ⓐ LeRoux]

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Bonney Lake, WA, woman tops US Olympic women's weightlifting

ATLANTA (AP) - Melanie Roach, of Bonney Lake, Wash., proved today that persistence pays off.

Roach qualified for the US Olympic Weightlifting team, eight years after a back injury ruined her expected trip to the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Australia.

The 33-year-old mother of 3 was the top-rated lifter at the U.S. Olympic weightlifting trials in Atlanta. She'll be joined in Beijing by Carissa Gump, Natalie Woolfolk and Cheryl Haworth on the U.S. team.

Roach was a promising gymnast at Auburn High School, but an injury cut her career short. Part of her rehabilitation was weightlifting and she became hooked on the sport.

But on the road to the 2000 Sydney Olympics, she herniated a disc in her back.

She quit the sport for five years to start a family with her husband, Washington state legislator Dan Roach. When she decided to start lifting again, the pain returned, too, forcing her to undergo surgery in the fall of 2006 shortly after she claimed her sixth national title.

Today, the 117-pound Roach made all 3 of her lifts in the snatch, the heaviest at just over 178 pounds.

In the clean and jerk, she lifted nearly 229 pounds with ease, then locked up her spot by hoisting just under 240 pounds on her second attempt.

[Chris Ⓐ LeRoux]

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Melanie Roach of Bonney Lake earns place on Olympic weightlifting team
By Paul Newberry

ATLANTA — Melanie Roach, a 33-year-old Bonney Lake mother of three, finally fulfilled her Olympic dream Saturday, having overcome the back injury that ruined her expected trip to Sydney in 2000.

Roach was the top-rated lifter at the U.S. weightlifting trials at Georgia Tech, claiming one of four female spots allotted to the Americans. She'll be joined in Beijing by Carissa Gump, Natalie Woolfolk and third-time Olympian Cheryl Haworth.

[attachimg=1]
Melanie Roach reacts to her successful lifts
at the Olympic weightlifting trials Saturday in Atlanta.
Roach claimed one of the Americans' four female spots,
along with Carissa Gump, Natalie Woolfolk and Cheryl Haworth.
"This is far better than anything I expected," Roach said.
"If I had made the team in 2000, I wouldn't appreciate
it nearly as much as I do now."

On the men's side, Kendrick Farris was the top-rated qualifier, followed by Chad Vaughn and Casey Burgener.

Roach's comeback was even more remarkable considering she quit the sport for five years to start a family. When she decided to start lifting again, the pain returned, too, forcing her to undergo surgery in fall 2006 shortly after she claimed her sixth national title. She received a procedure known as microdiscectomy that reduced the recovery time.

On Saturday, the 117-pound Roach made all three of her lifts in the snatch, the heaviest at just over 178 pounds. As she held the bar above her head, she screamed in delight. In the clean and jerk, she lifted nearly 229 pounds with ease, then locked up her spot by hoisting just under 240 pounds on her second attempt.

Afterward, she savored the moment with her husband and children.

"I'm really proud of my mom for making the Olympics," said 7-year-old Ethan, who will accompany her to China.

[Chris Ⓐ LeRoux]

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Back Surgery Propels Melanie Roach to 2008 Beijing Olympics
Minimally invasive procedure performed by Dr. Robert S. Bray, Jr.

ATLANTA, May 19 /PRNewswire/ -- Weightlifter Melanie Roach is living her dream after successfully qualifying for the 2008 Olympics Saturday in Atlanta thanks to Dr. Robert S. Bray, Jr., one of the country's preeminent neurological spinal surgeons specializing in micro procedures. Bray performed a 45-minute minimally invasive outpatient microdiscectomy under a high-powered Zeiss microscope to remove three fragments pressing on a nerve from Roach's herniated disc in 2006.

"If it wasn't for Dr. Bray and the wonderful job he did on my surgery, I would never be in this position," Roach said. "If not for him, and his understanding that I was just not ready to give up, this day never would have happened. At first I was a bit apprehensive because you hear about so many horror stories with back surgery, but I knew a lot of wonderful people that really believed in Dr. Bray and I went on faith. The main reason I selected him was the fact that he understood the mind of an athlete."

Unlike years past, when back surgery meant an end to a sports career, today's advances in technologies and instrumentation for these surgeries are now career-extending. With significantly reduced trauma to the surrounding tissues and less post-operative pain, professional athletes, weekend warriors and the general public are benefiting greatly from these minimally invasive techniques.

Patients are enjoying faster recovery times and are able to return to active lifestyles with reduced pain and more functionality. Roach's incision for her microdiscectomy was a mere inch, she had less than a teaspoon of blood loss and was walking around within hours of her surgery.

"I am absolutely thrilled for Melanie and her family that her dreams have finally been realized, as she truly embodies the Olympic spirit," Dr. Bray, CEO and founder of D.I.S.C. said.

The petite Roach, at 5-foot-1, 117-pounds is an eight-time U.S. Champion and is a mother of three including a five-year child with autism. She had battled a herniated disc for the past six years that saw her hopes dashed prior to qualifying for the 2000 the Olympics.

[Chris Ⓐ LeRoux]

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Scott Ferrell: For Farris, an Olympic dream becomes a reality

If it wasn't true, you might have a hard time believing this story.

An 11-year-old Shreveport kid dreaming about the Olympics. A weightlifting development center put on a satellite college campus in Shreveport.

Long odds for both the kid and the center.

The 11-year-old kid is 21 now. The USA Weightlifting Development Center is 10 1/2 years old.

They will be forever intertwined.

Without the weightlifting development center, Kendrick Farris may have never developed into the nation's top weightlifter. Without Farris, the center may still be waiting on an Olympian.

Farris wrapped up his spot on the 2008 Olympic team on Saturday. He finished first at the United States Olympic team trials in Atlanta. His 201 kilogram clean and jerk is an American record.

Farris' spot on the Olympic team is the realization of every hope and dream for both Farris and the development center's director, Kyle Pierce.

"You dream it," Pierce said. "You always talk about it. For the reality to hit, for somebody to make the Olympic team that started from Day 1 when he's 11 years old ... You always believe you can. I guess it could happen."

Pierce knew he had an Olympian before the weekend.

Farris has competed nationally and internationally for years. His trip to China for the Olympics this summer will be his second. He has already competed in 11 countries.

Yet Pierce also knew something could go wrong at the trials. As a graduate assistant football coach at LSU in 1986, he watched Miami of Ohio come into Tiger Stadium and upset LSU.

It's why he says he "never counts his chickens before they hatch."

It's why he struggled to sleep these last few weeks leading up to the Olympic team trials.

It is why he admitted to some relief after watching Farris finish first at the Olympic team trials.

Farris, though, isn't just an Olympian.

He is the United States' next best hope to medal in weightlifting — and that's no small feat.

"He's got the best shot of anybody," Pierce said. "He doesn't snatch with the rest of the world but he clean and jerks with them. His 201, had he done that at the World Championships, would have been a bronze medal, 206 would have been a gold medal. He's done 203 in training. He's cleaned 207, that's the jerk. He looked like he could have done 205, 206 Saturday."

How significant would a medal be?

Consider this, the United States' last weightlifting medal came in 1984 — a year the Olympics were boycotted. The last time the United States won a weighlifting medal in a year not boycotted came in 1976. That's 10 years before Farris was born. Another 20 years or so before he gave up table tennis for weighlifting.

Yet here is Farris, the kid who grew up on Easy Street in Shreveport, learned his trade at the development center on the LSUS campus, attended the school and has lived in Pierce's home in recent years.

He is the country's best shot at a weightlifting medal.

It's hard to believe.

"I think we always thought we could do something," Pierce said. "Deep down in your heart, you believe that."