Gibsons’ Lily Riggs is getting noticed in the world of weightlifting. She’s only been training for about a year but the 18-year-old has already set two provincial records and one national record.
She currently holds the B.C. record in her weight class for her squat at 282 pounds and her bench press at 150 pounds, as well as the Canadian record for deadlifting at 347.5 pounds.
Riggs is fast becoming the one to beat in the women’s sub-junior 72 kg weight class.
“I’ve literally found the sport I’ve been looking for all my life,” Riggs told Coast Reporter this week. “I just love it.”
The newly graduated high school student has always been athletic and has done well in dance and track and field in the past. She’s consistently placed in the top eight in the province for javelin, discus and hammer throw over the past three years and in dance she’s used her power to help lift other dancers.
However, when she went to Valhalla Strength and Conditioning gym in Sechelt to take part in a boot camp class last year, coach Curtis Munson noticed she had a talent for powerlifting and asked her if she wanted to try competing in the sport.
“He was just super supportive and I looked at the records and thought, ‘I think I can do that. I think I can hit some of those.’ So we set up a program and I started training,” Riggs said.
Her training took her to the Valhalla gym four to five times a week and by January of this year Riggs was ready to compete at the UBC New Year’s Championship in Vancouver. It was there that she set her first two provincial records for squat and bench press.
Powerlifting competitions are held several months apart, in order to give athletes the time they need to build muscle and become stronger.
At Riggs’ next meet on June 10, she showed her might by setting a new national record in deadlifting, ultimately lifting more than double her body weight.
The training is intense but Riggs says she loves it and that the results are undeniable when she competes.
“I’ve always loved the idea of pushing my body to the max,” Riggs said, noting that’s why she sought out Valhalla in the first place. The gym, which regularly incorporates things like tire flipping and kettle ball use into training routines, has a reputation for pushing athletes to their limits.
“Every single time, no matter if you’re there for 45 minutes or two hours, you’re dead by the end, and I love that,” Riggs said.
She plans to continue training hard until her next meet in October where she has a personal goal to squat 300 pounds. If she can do it she’ll beat her own provincial record, but she’s got a ways to go to hit the national squat record in her category – 396.6 pounds, set by Camille Tremblay of Quebec.
It was Tremblay’s national deadlift record that Riggs smashed in June, so there’s little doubt the Quebec powerlifter is watching the up and comer from Gibsons closely.
Riggs would love to get a scholarship for powerlifting but notes there’s not much available in Canada and she doesn’t want to move to the U.S.
She’s hopeful her next year on the circuit will give her the exposure she needs to land a powerlifting scholarship from the University of Toronto, which is the only Canadian school Riggs knows of that has a powerlifting team.
After taking a year off from school and focusing on her athletic goals, the new Elphinstone graduate wants to get her degree in kinesiology.
