[FEATURED] “I shop every week and anywhere I


go, I try to wear dresses. I try to be as much of a girl as I can, even in the gym,” Batchelor says. “Even though it can be a


“The main reason I didn’t want to


weightlift was because of the singlet,” says the rookie lifter from (Reading, Pa.). “I didn’t feel comfortable with that. I just


“She told me that she had a Wonder


Woman singlet and that (singlets) do come more stylish than just the plain kind of singlet,” says Reichardt. “I’m ob-


“ When I go to practice, I make sure I have some kind of pink on.”


really manly sport, there can be a lot of femininity in it. You can’t lose your iden- tity because you’re (a woman) in a man’s sport. I try to bring my own flavor to it.” The sparkly-finger nailed 22-year-old


from Mobile, Ala., is not dainty. Though a self-proclaimed ‘girly girl’ known for her Wonder Woman singlet, Batchelor is a 2013 National Champion (58kg) and will compete at the 2013 World Champi- onships in Wroclaw, Poland, this Octo- ber. She can snatch more than 1.5 times her body weight and out-lift your aver- age guy. The key to her success, she says, is let-


ting her personality show. “When I go to practice, I make sure I


have some kind of pink on,” she says. “I always make sure that my hair is done, my makeup is done, something is done just to add a little femininity. It’s just how I’ve always been. I’ve always been a very girly girl and I came into a sport that was perceived as a very manly sport, so I’ve tried to keep my identity as a very girly girl.” Perhaps that is why 14-year-old


Hayley Reichardt is the perfect pro- tégé to Batchelor. A natural talent, Reichardt began lifting in May and saw instant success. “I got fourth at the National Youth


Championships,” Reichardt says modestly. “That was my first real competition.” As many athletes do, Reichardt got


into Olympic Weightlifting because of an older sibling. She almost got out of the sport, however, because of having to wear a singlet in competition. She knew she was good at the sport, but nearly quit before she really got started.


“I was going to just write her a brief


email, but as I started typing it ended up being three pages,” says Batchelor. “I just sort of explained to her my story. I said things like, ‘Don’t give up on the sport, give it a try and see if you like it. If somebody sees potential in you at a young age, that’s saying a lot.’ She was very willing to talk to me about it. She was very open to everything I had to say to her.” And the issues with the singlet?


didn’t think I would like the feeling of wearing it. I thought it was awkward to wear because it’s tight.” Reichardt feared the sport was too


manly for a 14-year-old girl to start, so she resisted. USA Weightlifting asked the accom-


plished resident athlete to contact Reichardt and tell her a little bit about herself and how she lets her femininity show while competing. From there, a re- lationship started.


sessed with Batman, so when I found out that she had a Wonder Woman sin- glet, I was like, ‘Maybe I can get a Bat- man singlet, and maybe that will make me more comfortable.’” Batchelor made sure Reichardt’s wish


was taken care of. “Most singlets are pretty generic,”


Batchelor says. “She saw mine, which is a Wonder Woman one, so I had a Bat- man one made for her. It’s grey on top with the yellow Batman symbol, black on the bottom and has a yellow belt kind of thing.” The two have more than super hero


singlets in common. They text—some- times about


lifting, sometimes about


shopping and shoes—and even got to meet each other when Reichardt came to Colorado Springs to train. “Any pointers that I give her, she


takes,” says Batchelor. “She has my number and we Facebook all the time. She had Youth Nationals, and I had Pan Ams and Nationals, so it’s been sort of back and forth seeing how training is going, seeing how comps went, stuff like that.” To Reichardt, the loud, chalky, ‘manly’


gym is now more comfortable, thanks to Batchelor. “I look at what she’s accomplished—


she’s accomplished so much,” says Reichardt. “She’s sort of like my role model. She told me that it is a guy’s sport, but girls can do it, too. It just shows that I can be just as tough as a guy.”


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