Weightlifting competitions consist of two stages; the snatch – where a lifter picks up the barbell and lifts it above their head in a singular motion.
Then there’s the ‘clean and jerk’ where a weightlifter is required to pick up the barbell, bring to their chest and then lift above their head. Maximum lifted totals are then combined to decide the overall placements.
It is the former of these which Zoe has developed a problem performing.
A recent Instagram post of an attempted lift in training visualised the problem for her followers and while she appears bemused in the video, that is a coping strategy, the reality has been incredible challenging for the lifter to comprehend.
“It just didn’t seem like something that should be possible 15 years into a career, but it started initially in the gym probably around 2018 for seemingly no reason and then became a chronic problem in in lockdown,” she says.
“It probably did develop as a bit of a symptom of having to sort of just cope with everything that was going on at the time.
“I was training on my own in a garage, it was cold and it was a bit dangerous because I was pretty much touching the ceiling with a bar at times that I imagine is where probably a lot of the hesitation came from.
“It seems like it’s taken me a while to even be able to pinpoint when it happened and why and I still can’t find a logical reasons but perhaps whatever mental health struggles I was dealing with expressed themselves in that way.
“It’s also gone through phases, where sometimes it’s good and I’ll forget it’s a problem them other times it’ll come back with vengeance.
“But by telling myself to calm down and build things back up slowly I’ve been able to manage things and make gains which is really encouraging.”
BACK ON THE PODIUM, BACK CHASING A PLACE AT PARIS 2024