A lightweight pipe; sometimes, a broomstick.
That’s what Christine Williams started training with at the start of 2015 when she first got going with Olympic-style weightlifting.
Now, fast-forward 16 months. Things are a bit different.
“There’s definitely a progression,” said Williams, a 25-year-old who grew up in Clifton Park and now lives in Latham. “But it’s very gradual.”
A novice not too long ago, Williams — a 2008 Shenendehowa graduate — will compete at the USA Weightlifting National Championships. Out in Salt Lake City for the event that begins today and runs through Sunday, she will compete Friday against the country’s best within the 48-kilogram weight class of the Senior Division. The 5-foot-2 Williams naturally weighs in at 108 pounds and will cut to 105 for the competition, during which she will look to best her personal records of 62 kilos (approximately 137 pounds) in the snatch, and 74 kilos (approximately 163 pounds) in the clean and jerk.
“In lifting, it’s hard to make [your place in the standings] a priority,” she said. “It’s about you competing against yourself. Either you can lift your weights that day, or you can’t.”
Williams trains out of Crossfit Round Lake, a facility her coach Sam Axten — also a 2008 Shenendehowa graduate — owns along with
Melissa Manzer, a former Siena College women’s basketball player. Williams was a gymnast growing up, competing several times in national events during her teen years. At Ithaca College, she joined the school’s gymnastics team for a season before trying out diving the next year. An injured shoulder ended her collegiate career, and she was looking for something new to take the place of those sports when she finished college.
“I missed competing, and I had no hobbies,” said Williams, who works as an insurance agent and also teaches gymnastics several nights a week. “I didn’t really know what to do with myself.”
At first, she tried Crossfit. She liked that, but didn’t love it.
“I didn’t like to move fast and breathe heavily,” she joked.
Also, she really struggled with the lifting portions of the exercise regimen. For someone who grew up perfecting routines, that was unacceptable.
“I was really, really, really bad at them,” she said. “And, from gymnastics, I don’t like being bad at things.”
So, she ditched Crossfit to focus on lifting, starting with a pipe or a broom as she honed the technique. Ten months later, Williams started competing. Five months after that, she made her way to Columbus, Ohio, for the Arnold Weightlifting Championships to try to qualify for nationals.
Going there was a last-minute decision, as she initially had been wait-listed for the event. The only goal there, though, was to hit the combined total of 133 kilos she needed to qualify for nationals in Utah. That day, she recorded a then-PR of 61 kilos in the snatch before successfully completing a clean and jerk of 72 kilos.
“Which was exactly what I needed to qualify,” Williams said. “We went there to qualify, and we got it done.”
Both Williams and her coach will be rookies at the weightlifting national championships, as she was Axten’s first full-time pupil. Williams said she is excited to head to Salt Lake City, but not nervous. She’s been on a big stage before with gymnastics and does not expect to be in awe of her surroundings at the event.
“It feels like I’m back in my routine,” she said.
The plan is to keep that going. Axten has a multiyear plan mapped out for Williams, projecting out the progress she should make each month and year with her lifts. She said the breakdown of larger goals into smaller ones reminds her of the pursuit of perfection she enjoyed with gymnastics.
“That way,” she said, “you always want to come back.”
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