[INTERVIEW WITH A CHAMPION


]


DIANA FUHRMAN:


A MOVING LIFE THROUGH MOVING WEIGHT By Merissa Pryce


One of the most recent USA Weightlifting Hall of Fame inductees, Diana Fuhrman has helped open doors for women in weightlifting. As a four-time National Champion who holds multiple national records, Fuhrman has made lifting her life.


“I REALLY LOVE THIS SPORT!” she ani-


matedly expresses, while discussing the ex- perience of being a lifter for Team USA. In the late ’80s, Diana anxiously waited


for the opportunity to lift in the Olympics, along with many other women who trained and competed internationally. “Women didn’t get their first worlds until


1987. We weren’t admitted into the Olympics until 2000, so I waited a long time. Once we got the disappointing news that it would not happen for us in 1992, I decided I needed to start a career that would make some money, but also have the hours to allow me to train. I got my teaching credential and started teaching science at my alma mater Van Nuys High School (aka PHAT Elvis), which also hap- pened to be the place Van Nuys Weightlifting Tribe called home,” says Fuhrman. There’s no doubt that weightlifting has


come a long way as a sport since 1987. It was interesting to hear about some of the key differences between now and then. “In terms of atmosphere, 10 or 20 years


ago I never thought that weightlifting would be so popular in the U.S. I think weightlift- ing has changed in this country because more people know what a snatch and clean and jerk are. When I would tell people I was a weightlifter they would ask, ‘How much do you bench?’ or they would do their version of


6 >> USAWEIGHTLIFTING.ORG


a clean which was really a reverse curl. Who would have thought that the sport that all of us knew would transform anyone’s body into this deliciousness of thickness and speed would actually be so popular? We’ve all known that all athletes should do the lifts but it’s not been until recently that we’re seeing it happen. Unfortunately, there were a lot of men in


lifting that thought we shouldn’t lift and es- pecially not with the men in the same meet. Many men thought that we were doing it for the attention, which I never understood, and that we really didn’t have our hearts in it. Bob Takano reminded me of the time we


were sitting around at the orientation for the ’84 Olympics at Loyola Marymount, a few guys and I, and a well-known senior lifter said ‘We’re almost all weightlifters here.’ And I replied, knowing he was referring to


me – ‘I’m a weightlifter.’ “I remember going to a school with


Takano to demonstrate the lifts and a kid came up to us and said to me, ‘You don’t look strong.’ Takano kind of chuckled and said, ‘Kid, she’s obviously strong so this is what strong looks like!’ ” Before she was considered strong, and be-


fore all of the competitions, championships, and records, Diana was a high school athlete. “My honors biology teacher in high school, Bob Takano, knew I was a track ath-


lete and tennis player. He had been working with boys and wanted to see if he could train girls the same way he trained the guys. He asked me if I wanted to get stronger and more explosive and I said, ‘Of course.’ He invited me to a meet to watch a few of the good lifters in our area – Paul Staub and Marshall Morris were lifting with a couple of guys that would later become my train- ing partners – Dale Yakraus and Ray Blaha. The speed and gracefulness was beautiful. I couldn’t believe how much they were throw- ing over their heads in a split second. I was in love! As a 10th grader, I just thought, ‘I have to learn how to do this.’ How cool it would be if I could lift like these guys.” For Diana, it wasn’t an easy transition,


moving from track and tennis into weight- lifting. It took some time for her family and friends to get used to the idea. “For awhile, my parents thought it was a


passing thing. I know my mom and many of my friends thought it was very unfeminine. My mom was concerned I would drop a bar on my head. I’m sure we have all heard that concern before. ‘Mom,’ I would say, ‘I’m a good enough athlete and fast enough to get out of the way if I start to drop the bar.’ It probably wasn’t until they realized they


had to arrange big family dinners and holi- day events around my lifting schedule if they


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