- Profiles
Ciara O'Brien
Womens Hockey International, Ciara OBrien who has more than 100 caps for Ireland outlines her development at Railway Union Hockey Club and the commitment required to be an international hockey player while studying and working. This is her story in her own words ….
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- Projects
Irish Amateur Rowing Union
The Irish Amateur Rowing Union are developing the Wet row programme for schools linking with existing clubs
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- Real Life Stories
Ruth Kilkenny
International Badminton Player, Ruth Kilkenny outlines her experiences since moving to Denmark to train full-time. Here is her story so far...
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Orla Smith - Power Lifter
This is a very challenging sport, very male dominated but I would encourage more women to take part as it is a great way to keep fit and build up your strength. Read her story...
I was always interested in going to the gym and fitness in general, doing a lot of cardio work and light weights and then one of the instructors introduced me to heavier weights as a "dare".He started me on the Benchpress in the summer of 2002 and from there entered me into a Benchpress competition later that year in Carlow. At that competition I met a former power lifting champion with whom I started to train. He introduced me to the other two lifts, the squat and the Deadlift.
In early 2003 I joined the IDFPA (Irish Drug Free Powerlifting Association) and took part in my first National competition. In 2004 I competed in the Nationals and the Bench press. In 2005 I competed in the Nationals and my 1st Europeans which was held in Scotland. 2006 was an important year in that I started to lift in two categories, "unequipped" which is what I was doing all along and "equipped" (we wear a very tight fitting lifting suit, knee wraps and bench shirt to enable us to lift heavier). I did the Nationals, the Europeans which was held in France, and the Worlds which was held in Kinsale Co. Cork that year, all these events are held over two days to cater for the two catagories.2007 took me to Scotland for both European and World championships after qualifying at the Nationals in Castleblaney. That year gave me five European Records and two World Records. This year we have the Nationals over us and I broke a World Record which was set in 1992 and got two more European records.
I train hard to take part in this sport, training 4-5 days per week coming up to a competition but the rewards are great in that I get to travel a lot and have built up a great circle of friends. This is a very challenging sport, very male dominated but I would encourage more women to take part as it is a great way to keep fit and build up your strength. Women have a fear of heavy weights thinking that they are going to put on big muscle mass but this is not the case.
See the IDFPA website www.idfpa.plus.com or contact the organisation secretary on 086 8422018 to find out more about power lifting in Ireland.