When I started lifting weights in 1997, I remember printing off photos on our home computer (we’re talking bad 1997 print quality). I printed photos of Tara Nott, Cara Heads, Melanie Roach, and Robin Goad. I taped them on a poster board with “USA” written on the top and my goals for the year. I wanted to be just like these women, they represented determination and embodied success. Their photos motivated me. They were my role models.
 
Fast forward to February 17, 2001. I moved to the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado at the age of 17. My training partner was 27-year-old Tara Nott, the first-ever Olympic Champion. I was star-struck; I was in awe. I knew I had to work my hardest every day because I was training with Tara, a weightlifting role model for many young girls around the world. There were girls out there who would love to watch Tara train every day and I had that opportunity not only to train with her but to also get to know her as a friend (still to this day I get so excited to see her I cry nearly every time). She taught me a higher level of focus both in and out of the gym. I did what she did. I tracked my workouts, I ate healthier, I saw a sport psychologist. To me, a person who is a role model is someone you want to embody yourself after. You see what they do and mimic it so you can be like them and I did just that with Tara.
 
I trained in the same training hall with Tara from 2001 until 2004 when she retired from the sport after her second Olympic Games. Somewhere around 2011, the Olympic Training Center underwent a renovation. I was given a black and white photograph of Tara at the 2000 Olympic Trials snatching 82.5kg at 48kg bodyweight. This photo has hung in my office at two different nonprofit organizations I have worked for since 2011. I don’t have it hung because it is a photo of a weightlifter and I love weightlifting. Yes, it is a cool picture with an impressive weight over the head of a very tiny female athlete. But it represents so much more than that. It represents her hard work, effort, and dedication both on and off the platform. It shows that hard work pays off and is a daily reminder for me to give my best every day.
 
In August of 2006, after shoulder surgery, I fully committed myself to my training and making the 2008 Olympic Team. I wanted to be part of the small and mighty group of female weightlifting Olympians to prove to myself I could compete with the best of the best. In August of 2008, I achieved my goal and stepped foot on the Olympic platform. After competing at the Olympics I did many speaking engagements and meet and greet events for US Olympic Committee sponsor companies and VIPs. It never occurred to me that I was a role model and there was someone out there looking up to me. I never considered myself a role model nor did I set out to be one. I went to the gym because I liked working out. I wanted to better myself every competition and get stronger and stronger. I didn’t do it because I wanted people to look up to me for how strong I was or my work ethic. That was never my intention. If it was, I would have been in the sport for all the wrong reasons!
 
I was oblivious to the chances that there could be someone who was watching me. I had a conversation once with a Coach after a group of young girls came to watch us train in the training hall. They sat on the mats in the middle of the training hall for nearly an hour and a half. This was before social media, so they weren’t filming on their cell phones. They were truly watching and studying our technique. I commented to one of the coaches that was with them that I felt like a fish in a fish tank. I was waiting for someone to knock on the glass and wave at me. The coach said to me, “Do you think Michael Phelps woke up one morning and I said, ‘I want to be a role model’?” It was at that moment I realized that my teammates and I were role models to these young girls. They were doing just as I had done with Tara, Cara, Robin, and Melanie. Never did I think I would be on the other side and have someone look up to me as a weightlifter.
 
When we think of role models, we think of someone who has characteristics that we admire, or maybe someone who has accomplished something that we view as admirable. When people are asked who their role model is, they usually jump right to someone famous: an athlete or actor, not someone who is a friend, family member or teammate. To me, being a role model is very broad. It can be someone who fought cancer, or someone who hiked a major mountain (figuratively and literally). It doesn’t always have to be someone who is a top performer or a shining star. Oftentimes famous people are identified as role models because their stories are public. Their adversity is shared after they have overcome a struggle. You don’t get to see the daily battle, but only the end result that they made it through the storm, or achieved success. It is okay to have someone famous as a role model, but really, we’re surrounded daily by people who are total badasses. We just need to open our eyes and pay closer attention. We can see their daily struggles, their growth, and triumph right before our eyes. These are people who embody what it means to be a role model.
 
Dictionary.com defines the words role model as “a person whose behavior, example, or success is or can be emulated by others, especially by younger people.” I agree with their definition, but I wouldn’t put the ‘younger people’ label on it. Anyone can have a role model or be a role model. You don’t need to have age as a restriction to look up to someone. You could be 45 years old and look up to a 25-year-old athlete in your gym. Inspiration and motivation come in all shapes and sizes. Age has nothing to do with it.
 
You may think, “I don’t need a role model.” But having someone to look up to it pushes you to better yourself, it gives you characteristics to model yourself after. Your role model inspires you in times of need. You don’t need to publically share who your role model is with the world but don’t you think it would be good to have one?
 
Yes, this is a Journal focused on weightlifting, so chances are that you’re an athlete or coach. It’s important to note that you don’t have to be an athlete to be a role model. You don’t have to be famous or even involved in athletics. You can be a stay at home parent, a student or a grandparent. You never know who might be watching and saying, “I want to be just like you” So be mindful of your actions. You never know who might be watching!