I’ve never really been a sporty kinda girl, so when I found out that my new housemate for third year was a powerlifter it induced a slight sense of panic. My initial thoughts were that we wouldn’t get on, classic case of ‘we don’t share a love of weights therefore we won’t be friends’, however I couldn’t have been more wrong. We get on like a house on fire and she has inspired me to actually do some exercise, I think she’s pretty great. Our campus celebrity this week is the ever inspiring, ridiculously strong and undeniably lovely Ellie Steel.
Ellie started powerlifting after she was spotted for her talent at a strong woman competition in Southampton. You may be wondering how a 22 year old ends up at this kind of competition in the first place…Ellie noticed she was quite naturally strong while training in the gym and decided to add more weights into her routine. Ellie’s natural strength was noticed and she began to train with some impressively strong people, including a few of the World’s Strongest Men, this lead to her entering the strongwoman competition.
After being talent spotted at the strongwoman competition, Ellie began training to be a powerlifter; she soon built a ridiculously strong physique and worked alongside one of the top powerlifting coaches. I asked Ellie why she enjoys powerlifting so much, it is not the most common of sports lets be honest: “I love that powerlifting is a sport you can do for life, technically my strength won’t actually peak until I’m in my 30’s. I love the group of people that I train with, it’s a very social sport and I’m lucky to be trained by one of the top coaches”. Ellie is truly dedicated to her sport, she trains every day, sometimes multiple times a day. I am in awe of her motivation, I asked her how she stays so motivated: ‘I am actually motivated by the praise and support I receive from the people around me, it drives me to strive to be better’. In my opinion, Ellie embodies an empowered woman; she not only represents dedication, focus, and strength but also defies all stereotypes that women aren’t strong. I am ashamed to admit that, despite strongly believing in gender equality, I used to think women were not as strong as men, Ellie has taken this idea and defied it to new levels. I think Ellie should be our campus celebrity for this alone, even if she wasn’t really good at what she does, turns out that she’s beyond brilliant at what she does and she proved this recently.
Last week, Ellie won the Women’s Midlands Powerlifting competition, not only in her weight category but also the overall women’s competition, which was judged on pound for pound weight lifted. Oh, did I mention she’s only actually been powerlifting for 2 months? I think she may have been born for it. Despite only weighing 55kg, Ellie deadlifted (picked up from the floor for all you people who don’t live with power lifters) 130kg, that’s the equivalent of a fully-grown female lion, if you were wondering. My housemates and I supported Ellie at her competition and, no offence to the other competitors, but Ellie made her achievements look like a breeze. Lets just bare in mind here that I struggle to pick up the bar that holds the weights that Ellie lifts, let alone with the weight on it. Ellie, on the other hand, makes lifting 130kg look as easy as walking from one side of a room to the other. We were all bursting with pride and although I’m not sure I’ll ever start deadlifting weights she definitely inspires me to drag my bum off the sofa and go to my ‘body attack’ class every week, I hope her dedication might inspire you too.