One way to understand what Sibby Flowers did Friday at the U.S. Olympic Festival is to say she set four American weightlifting records in the 97-pound class.
Another way is to say that Flowers cleaned-and-jerked more than the combined weight of the two girls who finished second and third to her.
And another is to note that Flowers, 27, mother of a 2 1/2-year-old boy, is two years older than the combined ages of those two.
Silver medalist Cassie Clark is 13 years old and weighs 99 pounds. Bronze medalist Jackie Blazek is 12 and weighs 75.
”It`s really hard to compete against a 12-year-old,” Flowers said. ”I think I ought to be lifting three times what she is.”
Flowers was an easy winner, with a combined total of 308 pounds, a lift of 132 in the snatch and 176 in the clean-and-jerk. She bettered the record in the clean-and-jerk twice and, in an extra lift for record purposes, hefted 139 in the snatch, giving her new U.S. marks in all three categories.
Blazek, no bigger than a minute, established personal bests in all three, with 88 in the snatch, 110 in the clean-and-jerk and 198 total.
More impressively, she successfully lifted all six weights attempted, the only one of the four competitors to do that.
To her friends in the Minneapolis suburb of Golden Valley, that probably won`t mean much. And Blazek doesn`t think it`s worth the trouble of explaining it to them.
”I don`t even tell my friends I`m a weightlifter,” Blazek said. ”The first question they would always ask is, `How much can you bench press?`
That`s not what we do.”
Blazek, 4 feet 9 inches, seemed far more suited for her previous sport, gymnastics. She dropped that a year ago after being encouraged to lift by her father, Gary, a high school weightlifting coach.
Few girls Blazek`s age try competitive weightlifting, which requires timing and technical explosiveness as well as strength. She was named the outstanding women`s lifter at the 1991 Junior National Championships after finishing second in the 97-pound class.
”It`s great that we have someone to keep it going when I retire,”
Flowers said. ”We`ve got to keep encouraging them to take on the Chinese.”
Chinese girls, some of them barely older than Blazek, dominate the lighter weights in the world of women`s weightlifting. They hold all 12 world records in the four smallest classes.
What Flowers lifted Friday would have taken second place in the 1990 World Championships. That gives her optimism for the 1991 worlds in Germany this September.
Women are still vainly fighting to get weightlifting into the Olympics-at the same time the men`s sport has been told it risks expulsion because of the drug-use problems that have consistently plagued it. The women were recently turned down for admission to the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta.
That rejection was especially disappointing to Flowers, who lives in Carrollton, Ga.
”It`s pretty likely I won`t be around for the 2000 Olympics,” she said. Blazek will be only 21 by then. She enters the 7th grade this fall. She can still gain 21 pounds and be eligible for the 97-pound class.
”I eat a lot,” she said. ”I don`t have a diet. Every kid is supposed to eat good, not eat junk food all the time, but . . .”
Blazek trains five days a week, 1 1/2 hours in each session. She won`t do another competition until December.
”I have no idea how long it will take me to lift as much as Sibby is,”
she said.
Flowers` career may not last that much longer. Her husband is waiting for acceptance to medical school, which may force them to move away from her coach. And she may need a full-time job to support the family. Flowers lost her last job, as a gymnastics coach, because of conflicts with weightlifting. And then there is the matter of competing against girls who could almost be her children.
”These kids make me feel my age,” Flowers said.
Years weigh more heavily than barbells.
