Anne-Marie Young or as we codenamed her, AM, has been on our radar for quite some time. At 4’10.5” (151cm), and 105lbs (48kg), she is one of the most impressive females we have had the privilege of meeting. She has done, what very few have, and more impressively, she has done it twice.
AM had grown up on a farm near Cypress River, and ran track in high school. She attended the University of Manitoba, where she completed a B.Sc. in Agriculture, while she was training with the university track team as a sprinter. It was there she was introduced to what would later become her passion, Olympic Weight Lifting.
It was late in 2012, through a good friend I met AM. She was polite, petite, and soft spoken. She was on a pair of crutches; with her one foot was in an orthopedic boot, and the other was in a cowboy boot (staying true to her roots).
As the night went on, I asked about what she had done to herself. She explained to me she had dislocated her Talus (second largest bone in her foot) in a car accident. She told me in her foot there were pins, a plate, and a screw that ran through her entire ankle. She said she had injured the other foot as well, but not as bad. She said she had got really lucky.
I was in town overnight, so we met up the next day to hang out. She asked if I had ever done Crossfit, and if I wanted to swing by her gym. I was confused a bit by what she was going for, but I remembered that a big part of Crossfit was the community support. I thought it had something to do with that; I was wrong.
I look over to see her doing solid pull-ups, 16kg Kettlebell swings with the knee of her bad leg on a box, and handstand pushups. This girl was giving it an honest go, it was impressive. I hadn’t seen anything like it from anyone. I sure didn’t expect it from soft spoken girl that looked me square in the chest. I was in awe, that day she earned my respect.
Later on when I asked my friend about the car accident, I learned that the car accident was much worse than she had initially let on. As I got to know AM much better, she eventually told me that she would have qualified for Nationals for Olympic Weight Lifting in 2013.
The most impressive part of this story is, one year after she got her boot off, and the pins take out of her foot; she qualified for nationals in 2014. She stood on the podium at third place!!!
That wasn’t enough for this mighty mouse. She is back at it again this year (2015).
Few people will ever rise the level of the truly elite. AM has done it twice!! The second time she had to work through the injuries, and through the frustrations that come with them. If you were to ask her how she did it, we will likely self herself short. Truthfully, she just wanted it bad enough, and worked, and worked, and worked some more. She decided that no excuse was good enough.
Today AM is at a bodyweight of 48kg, boasting a snatch of 57kg, and a clean and jerk of 75kg. She is by ExRx.net strength standards, well above an Elite Level of strength. We are proud of her, and proud to know her. We are very happy to announce that she is the first ever athlete Delta2Alpha has sponsored. We truly couldn’t imagine a person more deserving than her.
**We have included a few Videos of her lifting. As you can tell by her happy dance, she doesn’t take herself to seriously.