Salinas Valley’s next great weightlifter headed to Colombia with Team USA
It’s relatively busy at O.M.R Performance off Abbott Street. A low din of conversation layers over the smell of rubber weightlifting plates and hangs in the air as the base from J. Cole’s “KOD” bumps through the converted warehouse.
On the platform closest to the entrance, a barbell rests parallel to the walkway with a faint coating of lifter’s chalk permanently stained to it.
Seventeen-year-old Alexia Gama again steps into position: crouched to the ground, feet facing forward, her back in a neutral curve. The first few beads of sweat form as she rises and inhales, pausing with the bar at waist level, before exhaling and firing her hips out. She flips the bar up and drops into a squat with the barbell, loaded with three-quarters of her body weight, over her head.
This exercise, called the snatch, is one of two Olympic lifts Gama trains for as a youth weightlifter.
And next week, she’ll be in Colombia representing her country in international competition.
From one platform to another
For Gama, the daily grind of training is nothing new. She spent seven years as a gymnast before transitioning to weightlifting.
“She was so used to the vigorous training,” Gama’s mother Michelle said. “She would train about 20 hours a week and could balance school with training really well.”
Gymnastics provided a solid base for Gama. After she quit the sport, she tried out CrossFit training with Michelle and enjoyed a lot of the Olympic lifts and the component lifts as well, like the squat, clean and jerk and deadlifts. Thanks to her time as a gymnast Gama had the core strength that is integral for a lot of weightlifting.
“After a few months of CrossFit, the gym that I used to go to started a weightlifting class,” Gama said. “And ever since then, I’ve just been doing it.”
Getting stronger
As a 5-foot-5, 105-pound teenage girl, Gama’s not the typical weightlifter.
“In the beginning, I was a little intimidated,” she said. “People are like, ‘Oh, you do weightlifting? No, you don’t,’ like it’s surprising. But not anymore. Now I just feel strong.”
But that hasn’t stopped her. Just minutes into her training for the day and she’s the lone person in O.M.R Performance doing the snatch, reaching the apex of her lift, dropping the barbell and letting it bounce off the floor. She’s pushing past 100 pounds with confidence.
“A lot of people are impressed and really proud of me,” she said with a smile. “It’s just a fun and competitive sport. I really like it.”
Another influence pushing her to succeed: a distant relative and late Olympic weightlifter Mario Martinez. Her cousin, former Everett Alvarez wrestler Ben Perez, is Martinez’ nephew.
“Of course he was a big part of the weightlifting community, especially coming from Monterey County,” Gama said. “I met (Martinez) a few times and he was really cool. He had a lot of knowledge and he was a nice person.”
Making the cut
As a 17-year-old, this was the final year Gama could make Team USA as a youth weightlifter. At 18 she’d have to qualify for the junior squad.
“It’s my last year as a youth,” she said. “And I definitely wanted to make an international team before transferring to juniors.”
She set out this season to build up her lifts and started working with coaches at Hassle Free Barbell Club, a weightlifting club in the Sunset District in San Francisco. She credits coaches Ben Hwa and Kevin Doherty with helping her get noticed by Team USA recruiters.
“I’ll see them once every other week,” she said. “Those are my two main coaches. I’ve been with them only a year and I’m already making a national team. They’re helping me grow as an athlete and as a person, too.”
To make the team, she had to get a 125 kilogram (275.5 pound) total on the snatch and clean and jerk at the National Junior Championships in Spokane, Wash. in February. She totaled 133 kilograms (293.2 pounds) and immediately qualified for Team USA’s youth squad.
Hwa will be joining her on the trip to Colombia this week for the Pan American Games.
Ready for Colombia
The Pan American Games provide Gama a new challenge. She’s only competed on a national level and this gives her a taste of world competition.
“I’m definitely excited but also nervous because I’m competing with girls from different countries,” she said. “I’m hoping to at least place top five and shooting for a medal (top three) finish.”
She has the sixth best mark among the competitors heading into the Games and would need a slight, but not impossible, increase to make it to that level.
No matter how she finishes, the incoming senior from North Salinas High is happy to be chosen for Team USA.
“I hope to make a good impression this year,” she said. “That way I’ll be even better next year and hopefully make the junior team.”
As she wraps up the snatch portion of her Thursday training, Gama’s sweating hard. The clean and jerk, her favorite of the two lifts, is next. She breaks the focus to share a laugh with Michelle after removing the rubber plates from her barbell.
This time next week, those laughs will turn into cheers at home and abroad.
Contact Sports Reporter Ayrton Ostly at 831–234–1565 or aostly@thecalifornian.com Follow on Twitter @Ostly_Scribe or on Facebook at “Ayrton Ostly, Journalist.”
Originally published at www.thecalifornian.com on June 1, 2018.
