ERIKA TO LIFT FOR GOLDEN MOMENT
Erika Yamasaki found salvation in weightlifting after some tough times during her youth. The medal-winning Australian has opened up to DWAYNE GRANT about her journey and hopes for the 2018 Games.
ERIKA Yamasaki doesn’t shy away from the fact her school days weren’t always the best years of her life.
“To be 100 per cent honest, growing up I was teased a lot,” the 30-year-old admits.
“Being half Japanese I looked different and being quite short, it was easy for people to tease me.”
Then she recalls how she found salvation in the most unlikeliest of sporting pursuits, not to mention one that has her dreaming of glory at next year’s Commonwealth Games.
“When I started weightlifting (at 13), I don’t know if it was a respect thing or the other kids were scared of me but things changed. It gave me confidence.
“To feel pride in being good at something makes a huge difference to someone’s life.”
With a tick over six months until the Gold Coast hosts a sporting festival like few others, Yamasaki epitomises the countless individual tales that combine to make a compelling Commonwealth Games.
She is the young woman from the south side of Brisbane who only stumbled on weightlifting via a talent identification program and now finds herself gunning for a fourth consecutive Games.
“For someone who’d never done weightlifting, to clean-and-jerk their body weight (35kg) was pretty impressive but I had no idea,” says Yamasaki, a bronze medallist at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne.
“The image a lot of people have of weightlifting is the big super heavyweights so I had never envisioned doing it. I always had the dream of going to the Commonwealth Games and Olympics, but I always thought it’d be doing gymnastics.
“When I realised I had a gift, I decided this was a path I wanted to follow.” Having a gift is one thing.
Just as crucial is having the drive to do something with it.
“It was quite difficult back then because it was a male-dominated sport,” Yamasaki says.
“Women’s weightlifting only got into the Olympics in 2000.
“Now it’s almost 50-50 (men and women competing) and people see weightlifters come in all shapes and sizes. Anyone can do it.”
Not everyone can do it as well as her though. Competing in the 58kg weight class, Yamasaki won silver at last week’s Commonwealth and Oceania Weight-
I ALWAYS HAD THE DREAM OF GOING TO THE COMMONWEALTH GAMES AND OLYMPICS, BUT I ALWAYS THOUGHT IT’D BE DOING GYMNASTICS ... ERIKA YAMASAKI
lifting Championships at Carrara’s Gold Coast Sports and Leisure Centre.
Having snatched 77kg and clean-andjerked 103kg, she snared a 180kg combo, not far off her personal best.
Her goal now is to win a medal come April and cap off what has been a turbulent period in her life.
“I’ve had a pretty rough personal life over the past couple of years,” she says. “I’ve battled serious injuries.
“I went through some problems in my marriage but ended up finding the courage to move on and find my own feet again. It was the right decision and all I can do is move forward and find things that make me happy.
“Weightlifting is definitely one of those (things).
“Being on the platform almost feels like being home for me.”