By Bailey Knecht, News Correspondent
Two members of the Northeastern powerlifting team recently took their strength to the International Powerlifting Federation’s (IPF) 25th World Benchpress Championship.
Senior Emily Liebert and fourth year Stephen King traveled to Rodby, Denmark to compete in the event from May 20-24.
Liebert, a pharmacy major, grew up a gymnast. She wanted to continue her athletic career in college, but sinceNortheastern doesn’t have a gymnastics team, she channeled her talents into powerlifting.
Stephen King, apolitical science and economics major, had a similar road to the IPF World Championships, also starting powerlifting as a freshman at Northeastern.
“I always liked lifting, but I hated running,” King said of his decision to join the powerlifting team.
Now in her final year at Northeastern, Liebert has become an integral part of the powerlifting team. Her road to Denmark was not easy, though. She had to earn her own money to fund the trip through a GoFundMe account, she said, and raised almost $2,000.
The pair trained four to five days a week in preparation for the big event. During practice, they would start out doing a high number of repetitions with light weight. Eventually, they put on special powerlifting gear to increase the tension and difficulty.
“We work on each aspect- the coming down, the pressing and the pausing,” Liebert said of their training. “You bring the weight down a little bit and once you get to your chest, which is a rule for powerlifting, you wait for the ref to tell you to press it.”
According to Liebert, an important strategy is “making sure you keep all of your muscles tight.”
The Northeastern powerlifting team members and coaches were helpful in her preparation, she said, by giving advice, planning workouts and spotting during lifts.
Training alone is much more difficult, so it’s better for me when there’s more people around,” King said.
Unlike the smaller competitions back home, King said, they had to take the training more seriously, making sure they ate right and slept enough.
“You can’t put unnecessary stress on your body in such a big meet,” he said.
With more judges, a bigger crowd and even a live online stream of the event, the championship competition was “a lot larger scale” than the events she’s participated in in the past, Liebert said. “Music is playing really, really loud to get everyone pumped up, then when you get on the bench, it’s completely silent,” she added. “It’s kind of dramatic.”
Although the Northeastern coaches did not attend, Liebert was grateful to have fellow lifter King with her, calling him her “personal coach” for the event.
Team members showed their support from afar through encouraging Facebook messages.
“I wish I could have brought every single one of them with me,” Liebert said.
Both Liebert and King had success at the competition. King finished third in his weight class. Liebert tied for sixth place, but was bumped to seventh as she was just .2 kg heavier than the girl with whomshe tied.
“I know that I’m better than how I performed,” she said, “but I’m still proud of what happened.”
King hopes to not only win the benchpress championships next year, but to make it to the more competitive Junior World Powerlifting Championships later this year. He also plans to continue lifting competitively after he graduates.
The next big event for the pair will be the collegiate competition. Liebert just missed first place in her last attempt, and hopes to come out on top this time around.
“I’m out for revenge,” she said.
Photo courtesy of Julia Liebert.
