In the small town of Cannon Falls Minnesota, the sports are what make us who we are. The dance team and girls’ basketball team are previous state champions—but what really means the most is our weightlifting team. Many schools have a weight program, but none like ours because we have many women lifters which make us unique. There are a lot of schools with a weightlifting team but theirs will never stand a chance against us… the key to ours is the women. Yes, women, I did not stutter, women who lift weights (as a sport or on the side) are some of the strongest (in every aspect) athletes out there. The benefits are amazing to an athlete’s body, it boosts your confidence; and it’s grown so much, but it had to start from somewhere.
Weightlifting and eating right is a kick start to a long, healthy and prospering life. It improves people’s strength in every which way making a kill in volleyball so much easier to get or that three pointer you’ve been working on for ages a piece of cake. What an athlete gets out of it is great in the short and long run. Ever since our women’s sports teams got in the weight room they’ve taking giant leaps towards more and more successful seasons. This has been a proven fact not only in Cannon Falls, but also across the whole nation. Weightlifting for women really makes life loads and loads less stressful.
One of the ways it makes life easier is by making a hard working athlete mentally stronger and more stable. Women… we all know were a little insecure at times none of us ever need to worry anymore. I’ve been lifting for four years now and it’s honestly done wonders to my confidence. I was a shy girl, afraid of everyone; but now I can approach anyone without being scared. It changes someone’s mentality completely for the better because it puts them in a mindset where they’re confident, cool, laid back, etc. Many of us lifters think this happens because we get strong so then our mind works as if there is no task too big that the body can’t do.
Women’s sports have come such a long way since the 1950’s and 1960’. In the fifties and sixties, women could only play half court basketball and no contact sports because if they did, it was said they wouldn’t be able to have children according to Jeanne Meserve, a reporter for CNN. In the seventies, congresswoman Patsy T. Mink proposed a bill called Title IX which basically said there shall not be any exclusion and/or discrimination in an education/activity program based on sex. It’s best known for sports (women’s collegiate and high school). In 1971, there were only 294,000 women participating in school sports; however, that number increased by a long shot in a little over two decades. The number of women in sports in 1995 was a whopping 2.4 million!
Weightlifting is a great sport that everyone should try out; it’s great for athletics, confidence, and so many more things. Every sport known to man has come a very long way, especially weightlifting. Many people think that weightlifting turns people into the huge bodybuilders but it doesn’t; so what, you get toned muscles, what’s so bad about that? Cannon Falls is a weightlifting town that will never stop growing, it’s who we are, and it’s in our veins and will always be here. Weightlifting is a great sport for both men and women, and to all my fellow women out there who get in the weight room: more power to each and every one of you!