[2016 NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS WOMEN’S TEAM CHAMPIONS


CATALYST ATHLETICS WINS WOMEN’S TEAM TITLE


By Anna Resman Catalyst Athletics


(Sunnyvale, Calif.) captured the


team championship title at the 2016 USA Weightlift- ing National Championships. Team members includ- ed Jessica Lucero (58kg – Altamonte Springs, Fla.), Samantha Kleinschmidt (75kg – Benicia, Calif.), Jessica Liao (48kg – Honolulu, Hawaii), Ariel Stephens (69kg – Woodland, Calif.), Chelsea Ryan (69kg – Los Gatos, Calif.), Amy Hay (75kg – Hood River, Ore.), and Alyssa Sulay (58kg – Fremont, Calif.). Lucero and Stephens lifted in the U.S. Olympic Team


Trials, occurring immediately following the National Championships on Sunday afternoon. Lucero broke four records and was the National Champion for 58kg. Stephens was third overall in the 69kg division. Ryan also lifted at 69kg during the National Cham-


pionships and placed seventh. In the 75kg division, Hay and Kleinschmidt placed third and seventh, respective- ly. Liao did not total, and Sulay had to withdraw due to a shoulder injury. USA Weightlifting spoke with head coach, Greg


Everett, to learn more about the history of his gym, his thoughts on the National Championships, and the focus of Catalyst Athletics moving forward.


You are the founder of Catalyst Athletics – can you speak to the history of the gym and the growth you have seen over the years? I started Catalyst Athletics in 2006 while I was living in Southern California and training with my coach, Mike Burgener. At that time, it was just basically an umbrella for the weightlifting-related work I was doing, including online articles and the Performance Menu journal. At the end of 2008, my now wife Aimee and I


moved up near my hometown in the south San Fran- cisco Bay Area and opened a gym in Sunnyvale. It was a 4,500-square-foot space that we outfitted fully with Werksan equipment and six platforms. At this time, there were only a handful of actual weightlifting gyms in the nation, and to my knowledge most, if not all, had to bring in money other ways. We had to run fitness classes and personal training to pay for the gym. Basically, we just wanted a facility to train a weightlifting team, so we found a way to pay for it because it definitely wasn’t go- ing to be paid for by weightlifters. We didn’t even offer weightlifting classes for a few years. The demand just didn’t exist. In 2015, we moved next door to a slightly larger space (5,000 square feet) and expanded to 10 platforms, 2


4 >> USAWEIGHTLIFTING.ORG


dedicated jerk blocks, and 2 dedicated pull- ing block platforms. Our weightlifting classes were packed (20+ on Saturdays), and the fit- ness program that was originally the bill-payer shrunk dramatically to create space for the growing weightlifting program.


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How many lifters do you coach? Do they all train together? I personally only coach the lifters on our na- tional team now – about six women and four men at the national level, and then a couple more who are close. They all train together except one who isn’t local. We have two other coaches (two of our lifters) who handle all the lifting classes, which is anyone who isn’t at the national level yet.


What were your thoughts going into this year’s National Championships? I knew our team had a legitimate shot at winning, and I wanted to win this year in particular because we are relocating to Oregon in June. This was our last National Championship in our California location, so I really hoped we could close out this era with a win. We had some pretty amazing performances by our


women, and Aimee and I were incredibly proud. Jess Lucero, coached now by Aimee, lifted in the Olym- pic Trials, broke four American records and made her second international team. Ariel Stephens lifted in the Olympic Trials as well – which made us the only team with two women in the trials, and Aimee and I the only married couple who each coached a lifter in the trials. Amy Hay had a great day after dealing with a shoulder injury in the last few weeks leading into the meet, and Chelsea Ryan had a strong performance after missing a total at the American Open and having that on her mind. Our newest lifter, Sam Kleinschmidt, had a great day with her first National Championships appearance. All of them worked really hard and earned the win.


What are your thoughts on the growth of female lifters in recent years? I’ve always coached primarily women, so it’s not any- thing odd to me. I think it’s great. The competition for women has certainly increased dramatically, espe- cially in the 58kg and 63kg classes with all of the new lifters coming from CrossFit. Of course this makes our jobs harder as coaches and lifters, but that’s what it’s


JESSICA LUCERO (58KG) TEAM: CATALYST ATHLETICS NATIONAL CHAMPION; NEW AMERICAN RECORDS IN SNATCH, CLEAN & JERK, AND TOTAL


all about—there’s no satisfaction in competing with- out real competition.


You recently announced that you will be closing down your gym in California and moving to Oregon. Could you speak a little bit about this change and what your goals are moving forward? From the day I started Catalyst Athletics, the goal has been to coach weightlifters and produce quality edu- cational material for lifters and coaches and maximize its accessibility. We opened a gym not because we had any interest in the gym business, but because we needed a place to train a weightlifting team. The gym business takes a lot of work, resources, time and en- ergy – and all of that limits what we can do with regard to our actual purpose. We are at a point now where we don’t need a commercial gym for a number of reasons, so it makes sense to get rid of it and focus on what we actually want to do. Additionally, because the Bay Area is so obscenely


expensive now, lifters can’t afford to live there. We decided to relocate to an area that not only is a great place to live, but one that’s affordable for lifters with a stipend and maybe an easy part-time job to allow them to train full time. We want to get back to our roots as lifters and


coaches – which is the garage gym. I also feel like this is in many ways preserving some essential elements of American weightlifting. We have a 1,700-square- foot garage, which will give us enough space to have nearly the same setup we have in the current gym – without the stress, hassle and distraction of an actual gym business.


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