By: Alejandra Zuniga
Nicole is 18 years old—and she’s a weightlifter.
She never thought it would be possible for her to practice a sport that required strength. Where she is from, this sport is known as a sport for men, not women, and there are many myths surrounding it: “A rough sport isn’t normally for girls like me,” Nicole says.
Nicole lives in a remote region of El Salvador called Santa Rosa de Lima, where the environment is quiet and the weather hot. Youths don’t have many entertainment opportunities, which is why the government opened gyms inside some public schools.
It isn’t expected to find girls who practice sports, but Nicole shrugged off the community’s expectations to register her interest.
“I was in the last years of school when I started attending the gym and practicing lifting weights; my cousin and I were the only girls who trained in the sport,” says Nicole.
Resistance from her own family
Initially, her family background and the community’s comments made her feel incapable; even her mother’s reaction was one of worry.
“That’s a sport for men, not for girls. Imagine if something happened to you while you were lifting weights,” she told Nicole.
“Some of her comments were because I was the family’s little girl. She only wanted to protect me,” says Nicole. “Because weightlifting is considered for men, people tend to minimize a woman’s physical capacity, creating a myth that you are going to stay short if you practice the sport.”
Today, it’s been three years since Nicole began lifting weights with discipline. Along the way, she has destroyed many personal barriers that prevented her from having self-confidence and made her doubt her physical and emotional abilities.
“Discipline shaped me in many ways. Before, I was very emotional, and people easily made me cry or feel that I needed help to fulfill my goals. When I started to hear admiring comments about myself from people in the community and from my family, my self-confidence grew,” she says.
She is now achieving things she could never have thought she could reach. Now, she is an example in the community that women can do whatever they want because there is no mental or physical barrier that she cannot break down.
The journey has been challenging. But the sport has let her meet inspirational people whom God has brought into her life to provide inspiration and self-care.
Encouragement for every challenge
When Nicole was four years old, she registered with the local Compassion centre. There, she received many benefits that helped her family in their times of greatest need. Also, she was encouraged and cheered along in her involvement in sports.
“I have great memories at the centre because they organized football championships, and I was always there because since I was little, I have loved sports,” she says.
When she began weightlifting, her tutor and the centre director helped her so much because the school gym only allowed her the space to train and a coach; the centre covered the costs of traveling to competitions.
“At the centre, I always found encouraging words when my tutors looked at me and I seemed sad or discouraged. They lifted my spirits by saying: ‘Don’t give up, there will always be good or bad workouts, but the important thing is to keep going’, or they expressed their admiration for me for focusing on the sport,” says Nicole.
The centre staff wanted to do more to take care of Nicole’s athletic performance, and they took her to an appointment with a nutritionist, where she was taught how to take better care of her body since the sport requires a lot of physical effort.
The nutritionist provided her with a personalized diet plan to improve her body mass and recommended some vitamins, supplements, calcium, a strengthener for the ligaments of her knees, and a physical trainer.
“The centre provides all the necessary medicines, vitamins, and supplements. I knew I needed them, but it was out of my reach to buy them; now that I have them, I have noticed big changes in each workout. My performance has improved a lot!” says Nicole.
Trusting in God
Coming soon, Nicole will compete in a regional weightlifting championship, and she trusts in God that she will be one of the winners.
“I feel very proud of what I have achieved to date because it is very encouraging to feel that you can make people older than you are, proud – and that you are an example for many other girls within the community and school,” says Nicole.
In all parts of her life, Nicole is learning to apply the same discipline and trust in God’s provision, including her professional dreams of getting a chemistry degree and working as a professional scientist.
“I dream that God will allow me to complete my studies in a chemistry career and guide me to find a way to educate mothers in my community, taking away from them the fear that weightlifting is only for men,” she says.
“Children from kindergarten can participate in championships for kids—if you start a sport from a young age, you can achieve better results!”
Article supplied with thanks to Compassion Australia.
About the author: Alejandra Zuniga is a Photojournalist for Compassion El Salvador.
Images by Alejandra Zuniga.