Meredith has been one of our strongest up-and-coming young American lifters for the last few years. She’s a Junior National Champion and international Team USA competitor, and she’s been battling it out with fellow superstars Kate Nye and Mattie Rogers almost monthly as they’ve all been fighting for Olympic qualification. And when I say, “almost monthly,” I mean it. The Olympic qualification system of this quad has made my knees hurt just reading it. Our top US lifters have been forced to compete six or seven times a year (or more), often attempting new record lifts every time. I’ve openly questioned if I thought this was a good idea for our athletes, mainly because I remember what it was like back when I was competing at the national level 25 years ago. Getting on the platform and trying to break records six times a year sounded like suicide.

But here Meredith stands, stronger than ever and only getting better. She has toughed it out mentally and kept pushing, despite all the setbacks and rough days that are inevitable when you compete this much. She’s one of the best weightlifters in the United States, and we’re honored to share her story with you.

Tell us about your background. Where are you from, where do you currently live, what’s your occupation, family life, what kind of sports background do you have outside of lifting, etc.

I was born and raised in Virginia Beach, Virginia and, despite being a Navy brat, I never moved until a few days ago. I currently live in Norfolk, VA with a friend of mine who does powerlifting. For now, my occupation is weightlifting, as I graduated from Randolph College in December and am no longer a student. I majored in Philosophy and minored in Spanish and Religious Studies. I have my eye on law school in the future. My parents are still in Virginia Beach and my older brother is in North Carolina. My parents are highly involved in my weightlifting, as many people know, and my dad essentially serves as my representative.

When I was about two years old, my parents put me in a gymnastics gym since I was climbing all over the house. I competed from ages six to 10 and reached level seven. After leaving gymnastics, they wanted me to find another sport, so I chose soccer, which was my dad’s sport. I did that at a travel club level for about five years and played at my middle school, high school, and one season in college. I picked up track in school as well, where I ran all sprints, relays, hurdles, and did long jump and had a very brief career as a thrower (shotput and discus). I got recruited out of gymnastics retirement into high school gymnastics for a few years, and I did CrossFit briefly in high school.

Describe your weightlifting history. When/how did you start? Who have your coaches been? What are your proudest accomplishments?

In high school (Kellam 2012-2016), our assistant principal worked out in the mornings before class. A few friends of mine started joining him and made it a club (KellamFit). At the time, I was participating in gymnastics, indoor and outdoor track, and soccer, so it was pretty well-known that I was athletic and reasonably strong. My friends suggested I join the club and so I did. It was mostly CrossFit with some bodybuilding and powerlifting. I remember the first time I was taught a clean by our principal. He said, “Wow, you did that better than me.” I remember it feeling pretty natural and easy. After a while, he suggested I go to a box, which I didn’t do until the summer before my senior year (which was the summer of 2015). I got pretty good pretty fast and cleaned 205 lbs. within a couple months. I was told I could go to the CrossFit Games, so I suppose that’s what I started training for, but stuck to one class per day. My first weightlifting coach, Brian Kirkendall, did a seminar one weekend which I attended because I didn’t know how to snatch. He suggested that I join the weightlifting class, so I did. I was 17 at the time and we realized I could have done well at Youth Nationals, but that I would have to qualify for Junior Nationals the next year.

I competed in a local meet that September (2015) I think, but I bombed out my jerks by press out. I went down to MDUSA in October and qualified then with a 145kg total as a 69kg. In February, I competed in the Virginia High School Gymnastics State Championship, which we won on a Friday night. The next morning, we drove to Philadelphia for the 2016 Junior Nationals in Valley Forge, where I placed 3rd with 169kg. At this point, weightlifting was just sort of one of the sports I did. I had been accepted to my college (Randolph College) since September where I planned on playing soccer and running track (ODAC Division 3). I figured I would just lift on the side.

That summer before college, I was on vacation in Hawaii, where my mom’s side of the family is from. There I was introduced to Vernon Patao, two-time Olympian, who eventually took over my programming and coaching from Brian. He and his brother were pretty excited about my lifting and told me I could start winning national meets. I got a little arrogant after that, and after training while playing college soccer for a semester, I bombed out snatches at the Orlando 2016 American Open as a 63kg. That definitely is one of the moments I’m least proud of for a variety of reasons, but I learned a lot and met one of my best friends, Celia Gold, while cutting and trying not to die in the sauna together. After that, I stopped playing soccer and never made it onto the track team.

I was with Vernon through the 2018 Junior Worlds. With him, I came back to win the 2017 Junior Nationals and make my first international team (Junior Pan Ams 2017 in Ecuador). I specifically remember that 86kg snatch as one of my proudest moments because I had gone 3/3 and felt like that’s what weightlifting was supposed to be. Getting the phone call from Lance that I had made the Junior Pan Am team was another of my proudest moments. I hadn’t been expecting it at all and didn’t even know about it until someone mentioned it after the meet. I was so excited.

2017 is full of some of my proudest moments because I was so new to the sport yet was succeeding at a relatively high level and proving a lot to myself about my potential. At Junior Pan Ams, I missed my second clean and jerk at 110kg for a stupid reason, and somehow 115kg ended up on the bar for my third attempt, which was a 7kg PR at the time. I smoked it and was branded a warrior by Mike Gattone, which has stuck with me since. Another of my proudest moments was my 118kg clean and jerk at 2017 Junior Worlds in Tokyo. Dane Miller asked what I wanted and I said I needed more rest and asked if he thought I could make 118. He was so confident, I agreed, and then made that easily, too. I ended up seventh overall from the B session and I thought that maybe I could be really good at this.

At the 2017 American Open, I missed my last two snatches and was behind Kate Nye (Vibert at the time) by 11kg. She had snatched a whopping 98kg at 18 years old I think, a year younger than me. For clean and jerks, it was just us at the end. I went 115-120-125 to hit a massive PR and win overall by 1kg. That was when I felt like I had made it and had proven myself. It’s probably one of the worst cleans I’ve ever done in competition, but pulling it off revealed a lot to me about what I could do in the sport.

2018 was a rollercoaster of a year. I won Junior Nationals easily, went to Senior Nationals and went against Kate again. She blew me away on snatches again, but I went 3/3 this time and made 97, a huge improvement from my 89 at AO 2017. She had gotten much stronger on clean and jerks though, and I needed 131kg to win. We loaded it and I cleaned it (this might actually have been my worst clean in competition), but missed the jerk. I was devastated, but loading 130+ and cleaning it successfully seemed to shift a tide. I was becoming competitive with the senior elites and knocking on the door of some big numbers. At Junior Worlds, I swept silver, which admittedly was less exciting to me than it should have been, but I felt proud that I was making progress internationally. I went into AO3 that September unaffiliated. I’m not sure I knew what I was doing at that meet. I think I knew I had an offhand chance at making Senior Worlds, but didn’t expect anything to happen. Regardless, I managed to clean and jerk 133kg, which was good for a Junior American record in clean and jerk and total (my first records) and made the team. I broke down crying after 133 not because I knew it put me on the team or was a record (I think the 131kg I did on my previous attempt was a record, I’m not really sure), but because again I had proven to myself that I was capable of more than I ever thought.

At 2018 Senior Worlds, I was affiliated with Travis Mash. I had a bad cut and my legs were gone. I felt out of it and missed my third clean and jerk at 135kg, which would have been a Junior World Record and would have been a bronze medal clean and jerk. I’m most proud of my ability to enjoy the experience of the meet and not be flustered by its size or prestige. It’s one of my favorite competition venues to date.

2019 wasn’t a year I’m proud of other than my ability to hang on. Having Kate, Mattie, and I in the same weight class was a nightmare, although they’re both are amazing people and I’m glad that I got to go through it with them, if nothing else. We went all out every qualifier to try to make teams we already qualified for. My body was constantly in pain, and mentally I wasn’t doing much better. I bombed two meets in a row (Colombia and AO2) and almost blew out my knees trying to clean 139kg. I needed to hit a total that would have medaled at Worlds just to make the world team. Being an alternate because you were third in your weight class for a team you’ve made (top 10 by ROBI) stings. I had a lot of time to prepare for the American Open though, which I attended unaffiliated. That meet was a lot of fun for me to get back on the platform with some new and improved technique and although I didn’t make a total or the lifts I really wanted to, I’m proud of the strength and technique I was able to display and how much fun I had. Alex LaChance is such a fun competitor and I love sharing the platform with her.

2020 has been pretty eventful so far. I’ve hit some big milestone PRs in training and in Rome I felt more comfortable and confident on the platform than I have in a long time, if not ever. That’s a meet I’m really proud of because I came out of the slump that was 2019 to hit competition PRs across the board with ease and had a blast doing it. Even going 5/6 is something I haven’t done in a while. There’s more in the tank and I’m excited to get the chance to test myself at 2020 Pan Ams.

Please give a basic description of your training method. Just tell us as much as you can about your program, weekly/yearly planning, etc.

Considering our current Olympic qualification system, my training for the past two years has been entirely influenced by the timing of competitions. Their frequency dictates that I usually get about six weeks in between competitions. With my current programming that I’ve had for about five months, the cycle will start after a competition with a short building phase of high reps, low intensity and a lot of technique work. Week by week, the program shifts to lessen reps and increase intensity, with some back off/deload weeks in there. My training frequency during the week varies wildly depending on the phase, with some weeks having as little as four training sessions in four days and others having as many as eight training sessions in six days. I think my tapers and peaks are pretty traditional.

Describe some of the obstacles you face, or maybe some things that frustrate you in your weightlifting life. What kinds of changes would you like to see, either personally or with the sport in general?

When I was still in school, I was endlessly frustrated with my inability to ever focus entirely on either weightlifting or school. I was constantly making sacrifices while attempting to achieve at the highest level of both. However, being in school gave me structure that I don’t have now. I currently lift in a 24-hour gym (not a chain) and have no obligations besides lifting, so I can get pretty bad about lifting at a reasonable time and going to sleep at reasonable times. That’s the biggest thing I’d like to change personally and I’m working on it. In the sport, I’ve been frustrated by the nature of the qualification process in the U.S. I understand that policy is policy for a reason, but pushing ourselves to the absolute limit to make teams we’ve either already qualified for or defend spots when we already have a history of our capability feels extreme. Competing every two months or less is exhausting physically and mentally, and going all out at qualifiers to go 1/6 (which I know I am mostly responsible for) has been seriously detrimental to my mentality about competition in general and confidence. Not making 2019 Worlds was sort of a blessing in disguise since I got to step back and build back up and not worry about opening at unreasonable openers. I think nationally the sport does have some room for subjectivity, considering there are cases in which the policy is being played in ways it wasn’t intended to be anyway .

What are your plans and goals for your weightlifting career? How do you see your future in the sport?

I plan to keep competing through 2028 most likely. I’m definitely trying for the 2024 Olympics and would like to make as many world teams as possible. I have a few shorter-term goals, like totals or lifts I’d really like to make such as a 145kg clean and jerk and a 245kg total because 145kg was my first total. A double bodyweight clean and jerk would also be really cool. I don’t like giving myself a goal for a lifetime best total or anything because I know I’ll personally feel like my success in the sport will depend on whether or not I make that number, and I also don’t want to ceiling myself since I really have no idea what I’m capable of. It makes it easier to keep pushing if I just push one kilo at a time. This gets me out of the “I should be lifting these numbers” mentality, which tends to be detrimental to how I perceive training and competitions. I am ambitious to be the best that I can be and keep improving internationally to hopefully accumulate some international medals.

Who are some of your major influences, people you look up to, etc.? Who are the people you want to thank for your success?

I still feel really new to the sport so I don’t have a ton of international lifters that I look up to or idolize. I’m obsessed with Tian Tao’s cleans, though. I would say the people I look up to most are my teammates on Team USA. Many of them have either been lifting forever or have been lifting for a short time like me, but their dedication, experience, and comradery have been invaluable for me to watch and be a part of. Pyrros has also become a pretty big influence on me. I’ve been so grateful to have the opportunity to talk to him about his career and learn from it. He’s incredibly supportive and always wants us all to succeed; I hear his cues when I’m lifting, but I also hear his encouragement whenever I feel doubtful. All of my other coaches, past and present, have been my greatest influences as well in that I’ve learned so much about programming, coaching, and technique styles that I can apply to my own training now. Each are very different and I’ve taken away so much from them. However, I’ve essentially always been a remote athlete, so the people I want to thank for my success are some of the people I’ve trained alongside for the past few years. Until now I’ve been training alone out of CrossFit gyms, but I’ve had consistent training partners at all the places I’ve been who have been there alongside me each day to encourage and push me when I needed it. Without them, I’m not sure how I would’ve gotten through most of my training. Recently I’ve been adopted into a rowdy group of powerlifters who have revolutionized my training. I have consistent times that we all train at, I can talk lifting with them, we eat together, and now I live with one. They’ve supported me unconditionally since knowing me. Having a training group is unbelievably helpful, and I can’t thank them enough. Mike Gattone deserves his own massive thanks for taking me under his wing and being one of my biggest supporters. I would be lost in this sport without him.

Congratulations on all your success so far, Meredith. And much respect to you for continuing to push and fight through the toughest qualification system we’ve ever seen. We’re looking forward to great things in the future!