Weightlifter Rachel Siemens is going to stick around.
Siemens, 23, ranked second at the Western Canadian Championships this year, and third at nationals, and is staying in Victoria now that she’s finished her kinesiology undergraduate at UVic. She hopes to represent Canada at the 2014 Commonwealth Games, 2015 Pan Am Games and then the Olympics.
“That’s the plan but it’s just one step at a time,” Siemens said.
“I have a (Victoria) coach, Rob Macklem, who’s been coaching me for two years now. I’ve also started a training business but will try to work as little as possible and train as much as possible to reach my goals.”
As a trainer she can adapt to whatever the customer wants, it doesn’t have to be weightlifting, though she’s qualified to teach more than the basics in weightlifting, fitness and sports performance.
“Training is pretty demanding. It’s a tough balance without much funding.”
The former CrossFit competitor moved completely into weightlifting this year after competing in both for the past two years.
It paid off as she placed third in the 2013 nationals in the 69-kilograms category.
Siemens competed last weekend in White Rock’s annual Sea Festival Open where she finished second to teen phenom Prabdeep Sanghera. The catch is Siemens didn’t cut weight. Rather, she competed in the 75-kgs category and matched Sanghera in the clean and jerk at 110-kgs lifted but only managed 83-kgs in the snatch lift to Sanghera’s 90-kgs.
“There aren’t that many weightlifting competitions so I can’t really afford to miss any but I wasn’t going to cut weight.”
Siemens is ranked eighth among Canadian women based on the Sinclair co-efficient, a number derived from the size of the athlete and their weightlifting results.
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