Emily Campbell at the Upcoming IWF Grand Prix II: Great Hopes for Winning a Title and Her Road to Paris [Interview]

Recently we had an interview with a great young British weightlifter with Jamaican origins, Emily Campbell, who became a favorite for many of us. She attracts with her open-mindedness, positivity, and vitality. Having numerous accomplishments and titles, currently, she’s doing her best to prepare well for the future IWF competition in Qatar which is another qualifying event for the Olympic Games in Paris.

Being the first British female in weightlifting who gained an Olympic medal, Emily is also famous for her body-positivity attitude in sports and proactive position in standing for the rights of black people and equality. In just five years Campbell has gone from a novice to competing on the biggest stage in her sport, having already been crowned European champion.

So, having such incredible titles under the belt, namely 3x European Champion, an Olympic silver medalist, a World bronze medalist, and Britain’s first-ever women’s weightlifting Olympic medal winner, we decided to dig deeply into her sports life, training routine, and some interesting facts that will present this superb girl-lifter from the other side.

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Having missed the WWC in Riyadh because of injury

As we found out Emily didn’t compete at the WWC in Riyadh because of the back injury. Together with a personal trainer, they decided to secure the ranking in the Olympics, which was an important thing. So, they’re working hard to get her back under control as it was really difficult to come back into shape for Riyadh and perform to the maximum to get the medal at the contest.

What about her current recovery, Elimy has some physiotherapy after coming back to England for intensive rehab. She’s cooperating closely with the team now and everything is alright. They’re working on the physiological state, nutrition, and training regime enabling them to fix quickly the issues.

Some stats about Emily’s best results

We asked Emily to share her best results in Snatch, C&J, squat, and back squat. So, here are the numbers: her best ever Snatch is 125 kg, 124 kg last year in Birmingham, and 165 kg in Colombia in C&J. About back squat, she admitted that she doesn’t really do back squat, but the best ever was 225 kg, around 230 kg for a single. She doesn’t perform front squats anymore, since it’s not in her program. The team decided that it wasn’t very productive, and she needs to work more on Clean.

Indeed, 165 kg in C&J looks impressive. By the way, in Armenia, it was 142 kg and her back issue happened there just 2-3 weeks before the competition. She did her first C&J of 95 kg one day and then did 145 kg the next day.

The next question we asked Emily was about preparations for competitions. Namely about how she prepares herself mentally and what drives her motivation during training. She said that she likes consistency in training, to work on movement to feel it to be sure of every move under the load. Knowing the feeling of the weights she’s going to lift gives her mental strength.

Things that bring extra energy and field of interest

Music is also a great way to be in the proper mood. By the way, Emily prefers something happy, dancing, festival. But she doesn’t mind if someone has their own music. The main thing is a good beat and good energy. Also surrounding people play a crucial role. She feels confident as she has a good training group, especially with people of good energy.

We noticed that Emily attends sports events in England and cheers for her fellow countrymen from different disciplines. She told us that she has many friends among professional athletes, especially in boxing and track and field. Moreover, boxing is her favorite sport to watch. Also, she was invited recently to Wimbledon, and she enjoyed watching high-level sports.

About Emily’s official and nonofficial titles and further path to the Games

When preparing for the interview, we found an interesting fact that Emily Campbell calls herself a “Queen of Sleep”. So, we asked her to explain it: indeed, she admitted that loves to sleep a lot. She even shared her sleeping schedule: normally she gets into bed at 9.30 pm and goes to sleep around 10-10.30 pm and till 8.30 am. Also, she has a nap for an hour in the daytime before or after the training. Emily sais us joking that loves to sleep anywhere and anytime.

Our next question referred to her title of being a strong woman. She said that likes it as it empowers her very much. It’s always nice when people don’t know you’re a strong woman, and then they find out you’re a strong woman, their response is very positive and inspiring.

Additionally, Emily is also a pioneer in British women’s weightlifting. We wondered about how she’s going to inspire future female weightlifters. She replied that hopes to inspire women, but to inspire men too. She’s trying to do the best that she can and hopes that this will give them the motivation to do what they like and achieve their goals.

Having left the question of the highest interest for the end, finally we asked about her future goals in weightlifting and other aspects of her life. Emily told us that her future goal is an Olympic medal and to collect them as many as possible in the competitions.

Also, she plans to start a gym in her home city Nottingham, for young kids and their development in sports, to show them how to snatch, clean & jerk, front and back squat, safely from a young age.

Campbell’s team plans to be in Qatar, but it depends on how she’s going to be in the next few weeks, since she has some uncertainties because of her injury. But, she hopes so to compete in Qatar.

With so numerous impressive wins at national and world championships in several years, and being in professional weightlifting just since 2016, Emily has already showed her power and great desire to prove everyone and herself as well that she’s ready for even bigger challenges.

Follow our channel to stay updated about the latest events in the weightlifting world and know first Emily’s progress on her path to the next qualifying event before the Games in Paris.