The weight of Olympic dreams

GERRY O’Mahony and his crew are thinking ahead – specifically to the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. The 20-member Miltown Malbay Weightlifting Club was established in May 2010 and as recently as February 18, the club won five gold and three silver medals at the National Championships in Dublin. The club is based in the old St Joseph’s Miltown GAA Club dressing rooms at Hennessy Memorial Park.
“Our plan is to take them to the 2016 Olympics. They’re training four days a week and that’s one of their little dreams. If we can get one or two of the lads to that level, that would be unbelievable,” Gerry confided.
The club founder, who won European titles in the 125kg class in 1993 and 1994, has invested €9,000 of his own money in buying equipment. He is originally from Miltown but lived away from West Clare for several years.
“I left in 1969 and went up to Meath. Then I went to England in the mid-’80s. That’s when I really took up lifting. I went over doing Olympic lifting and bodybuilding. I went into the power lifting in the late ’80s,” Gerry explained.
On his return to Miltown, Gerry saw an opening for a weightlifting club. He had been involved in rugby coaching and completed a strength and conditioning course with the IRFU six years ago.
“When I came home from England five years ago I couldn’t find a gym that I could perform a lift in,” he recalled. That further inspired him to establish a local club. While the concentration is on Olympic powerlifting, he said football or soccer players can also benefit from weightlifting work.
“It’s got a great transference for field athletes. It improves their speed and it makes them flexible. It’s not like where you’re bodybuilding, where you’re just lying down, pushing things up and down and getting your muscles bigger,” he said, adding that parental concerns regarding possible injuries are misguided.
“There’s less injuries in the sport of Olympic lifting when it’s trained properly than there is in any other sport on the planet. Olympic lifters, at the Olympic Games, are the second most flexible athletes next to gymnasts. That’s scientific fact,” Gerry pointed out.
He acknowledged that informed coaching is imperative.
“It’s essential with the Olympic lifting that the coaching is absolutely correct. Olympic lifters need to be extremely flexible and extremely fast. There’s a lot of myths out there that lifters are very slow and tight and all this kind of rubbish. I start them with broom handles, get them into the correct positions and work their flexibility. It’s not about the weight. It’s about the movement, speed and the technique. The weight comes after,” he said.
The club caters for about 20 members, ranging in age from 11 to 20.
“We usually meet four times a week. They have to be able to get into all the positions and move fluently, that’s when you add a little bit of weight and gradually increase their movement. I designed a programme for lads to build strength and then work speed into it,” Gerry added.
Already the club has two record holders. Aged just 17, Gabriel McNamara lifted 106kg in the clean and jerk at an U-20 international competition in Brussels last December. Gerry was the team coach. His son, Adam, has equalled the U-16 record in the clean and jerk, while another son, Christopher, is also a competitor. All three picked up medals at the National Championships in February, as did Conor Huston, Seán McNamara, Ger Lernihan, Brian Haren and Conor Healy.
While Gerry no longer competes, he really enjoys his coaching role.
“I just enjoy the sport. I pride myself on saying that my strength and conditioning centre has everything you need for Olympic weight lifting or any kind of conditioning,” he said.
Anybody interested in joining the club can contact Gerry on 087 9723426.