The 2014 American Open Championships

The Road To Rio Begins In Washington D.C.

The Road To Rio Begins In Washington D.C.

Dec 6, 2014 by Kati Breazeal
The Road To Rio Begins In Washington D.C.
Ellen Kercher seeks gold at American Open
By Andrea Signor


 
Ellen Kercher is used to the top spot on the podium. Since she started lifting in 2006, she’s won more than 30 gold medals at local and national competitions, including a dominating performance at the 2012 National Junior Championships. She hopes to continue that trend in Washington, D.C., Dec. 12-15 as she prepares to compete in the 53-kgs weight class at the American Open Championships. “I’m hoping to win,” she said. “I have a lot of competition.”
 
As she prepares for her second senior weightlifting event, Kercher said she hopes to put up some big numbers. “I want a 75-kgs snatch and a 100-kgs clean and jerk,” she said. Her previous personal records in competition are 74-kgs and 94-kgs, respectively.
 
In seventh grade, Kercher played on her school’s basketball team and, during a weightlifting training session with the high school team, a coach first observed her lifting technique. He encouraged Kercher to focus on weightlifting and offered to train her. “My first competition was in Disney World,” she said. “I won.” Kercher said she continued refining her technique and continued putting up big numbers.
 
After winning the 2012 National Junior Championships, Olympic Training Center coach Zygmunt Smalcerz recruited Kercher for Team USA. “He saw me and he wanted me out [in Colorado],” she said. Kercher left her home in Georgia for Colorado Springs, where she trains six days each week at the Olympic Training Center and studies nutrition at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs. She said she’s learned a lot in the past two years, including how to communicate with her coaches. “I’ve learned to be patient and listen to my body when it’s hurting,” she said.
 
Before she arrived at the Olympic Training Center, Kercher said she struggled with a sprained elbow, which continued to ail her as she prepared for her first American Open in 2012. After a disappointing performance, doctors determined she tore the ulnar collateral ligament in her elbow. “I was worried I was not going to be prepared to compete in the 2013 Junior Worlds that was held in Peru,” Kercher wrote in her blog. “As the time towards worlds ticked down, I slowly worked my way up in weights by increasing ten percent each week.”
 
Kercher – a hopeful for the 2016 Olympics in Rio – said she’s ready for the upcoming competition. “I want to try and do my best and do what my coaches tell me,” she said. “I just need to believe in myself.”

What are your predictions for the upcoming American Open? Let us know in the comment section below!