She is small, thin and shy. She hates being the center of attention, that’s why she runs through the gym rooms stealthily and quickly. She avoids posturing and posing in front of the camera generates some misgivings. But all that intimate aura is broken when the albums … They hit each other around the bar. He prepares to lift more than one hundred and forty kilos in deadlifts, ending that almost ceremonial silence with the moans of an effort that earned him the silver medal in the last Spanish championship. She is Elena del Pueyo, a young woman from La Rioja, barely 21 years old, who has found her reason for being in powerlifting, breaking many of the stereotypes that have kept her, as well as the rest of the women, away from this type of sports for decades.
Powerlifting is a strength sport that involves lifting the highest weight possible in a single repetition using three different exercises: deadlift, squat and bench press. It can be confused with weightlifting, as it shares materials and has similar movements, but there are technical differences that make them independent disciplines. And, while in powerlifting the three aforementioned exercises are performed, in weightlifting two snatches and two strokes are done, in which the bar is raised above the head. In the first, brute force prevails; in the second, coordination and balance.
Despite being a sport that is advancing by leaps and bounds worldwide, La Rioja is behind in the promotion and representation of powerlifting as it does not have any club where it can train the discipline within its territory. What’s more, Elena did not know it within her native community but rather she had to come to Santander to start practicing it, two and a half years ago, coinciding with the beginning of her studies in Physical Activity and Sports Sciences ( Cafyd). «I have always been a very athletic person, so I decided to join the gym, with a friend, when I arrived in the city. We were the typical girls who trained on the machines while we saw the ‘black part’, where people were dedicated to lifting weights,” recalls the Riojan. Both looked with suspicion, but also with curiosity, at the area reserved for lifting dumbbells until they met a group of boys with whom they entered the world of powerlifting. Since then, she hasn’t come out of it.
“Everything was very new at the beginning,” Elena explains while recounting the many insecurities she may have had the first time she lifted so much weight. “You see that you won’t be able to handle so much, I’m also very small, but this sport is very grateful to see results soon.” It is surprising, to say the least, to see how a young woman, weighing just 51 kilos and just over 1.55 meters tall, can lift more than 300 kilos if we add her marks in the three movements that make up this sport: “the most I have ever done.” When lifted in a squat it is 122.5 kilos, in deadlifts it is 145, and in the bench press I have reached 65 kilos.
The athlete from Rioja, who is federated and competes with the Powerlifting Cantabria club, feels proud to practice this discipline, despite having to explain how it works whenever she is asked. Her family was one of the first to get into this sport: «When I came home and said I was practicing powerlifting they told me, power what? “It was so fun to see everyone’s faces.” “Now, they are the first to follow me in all the competitions, although I have to say that it still shocks them to see me lift three times my weight,” Elena comments with a laugh.
The marks of the Riojan are surprising, even more so when she has only been training for two and a half years. She does it alone, in a gym in Santander, five days a week for two hours a day. She practices her movements while she records herself to send the videos to her trainer, Cristian Serna, who corrects her electronically. “We have to control the technique a lot since with the weights we lift we could get injured very easily if we don’t do things right,” says Elena.
Despite her short but intense career in powerlifting, the athlete from Rioja has been able to experience great physical and mental changes thanks to this discipline. She had played basketball during her childhood and adolescence in Logroño, going, overnight, from playing a team sport to being alone in the gym. “It was the most difficult thing for me since your achievements are yours alone,” says Elena. However, weightlifting has given her the feeling of self-improvement and personal discipline.
As for the physique, he has gained weight given the hypertrophy inherent within this type of disciplines. «I entered university after Covid weighing 47 kilos and now I am close to 51; “My mother keeps telling me that my back is too big but I look great,” Elena comments with a laugh.
The projection of the Riojan is superlative as she has reached the podium in the three competitions in which, so far, she has participated. “My first competition was an AEP-3 (initiation) and I came first overall,” says the athlete, adding that that was the moment when “I saw that I had the potential to get marks.” Six months later she participated in the AEP-2 (Northwest regional), in Santander, where she won the gold again, although this time in her category. Lastly, and the closest in time, Elena traveled to Lugo to bring three silver medals to La Rioja: for the less than 52 kg category, for deadlift and for squat.
Elena del Pueyo does not want to settle for being one of the best in the country but is already looking askance at athletes from outside our borders. “We are looking to be able to qualify for an international event, like a World Cup, which due to total weight could enter,” she adds. That is her short-term goal. Meanwhile, the woman from Rioja will continue to do her bit to defend that women can also stand out for their strength, as well as for making known a sport unknown in Spain, but booming in the rest of the world.
