Weightlifting women chase second shot at glory

2:16 pm on 1 April 2018

Bodies "broken" from high-impact gymnastic and athletic careers, Alethea Boon and Andrea Hams thought their sporting careers were over in their twenties.

But next week, the two women - Boon now 34, Hams 36 - will return to the Commonwealth Games, rebuilt as elite weightlifters.

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Alethea Boon, left, and Andrea Hams Photo: RNZ / Cole Eastham-Farrelly

Boon first competed at a Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur as a 14-year-old gymnast.

"I was a deer in the headlights when I was 14," she said.

"I didn't quite comprehend how big of a deal it was."

Then, and as an 18-year-old at the 2002 Manchester Games, "everything was dictated to us".

"We were told where to be and just get it done."

This time around, she's older, more assertive and feels more responsible for her own performance.

"I can right a lot of the mental wrongs."

There have been a lot of happy tears in the few days she has been on the Gold Coast, training ahead of the 58kg final this Friday.

"I never thought I'd be competing again after so many surgeries from gymnastics," she said.

"I thought I was so injured and broken."

Walking beside her in the opening ceremony will be teammate Andrea Hams, who thought the 2010 Delhi Games - when she won a bronze medal in hurdling - were her last.

"Knowing you're going to be putting on the black suit again... It's already giving me goosebumps thinking about it."

Hams has lived on the Gold Coast for nine years and works just across the road from the athletes' village at Griffith University.

"It's very special to see that unfold."

Both Boon and Hams found their way to weightlifting through crossfit, drawn to its precision.

Both gymnastics and weightlifting required millimetre perfection, Boon said.

"It's all about lines and power and strength for both - they're just expressed in different ways.

"You see a clean beam routine and a clean lift and the beauty in that - they're exactly the same."