Recap of the 2014 American Open

The weekend after doing my USAW certification, I attended and volunteered at the 2014 USAW American Open since it was taking place in Washington DC, and I wasn't yet home for break. Unfortunately I was only able to go on Sunday, but it was still an incredibly experience where I saw great lifting and met people in the industry that I follow all over social media.

I was a volunteer for the 105kg A session. I arrived thinking I was going to be a loader, but those positions ended up being assigned to others. I ended up volunteering to be a USADA (US Anti-Doping Agency) rep for the session. My job was to escort a randomly selected athlete (I feel like I'm not allowed to give away who it was) to get tested after the session ended. What that meant for me was that I was able to watch all of the snatch and most of the clean and jerks. About halfway through the clean and jerks, I then went to the warm up area. For me, that was even cooler than being in the audience. I got to see all these incredible lifters warming up and their coaches and all the interactions. It was a surreal experience for me. The only downside was that I wasn't able to really talk to anyone or take pictures with anyone or really be much of a fan, I had to act professional. But hey, I got to meet all these amazing people.

After that session, I then stayed around and watched the 105+A session which was another session of really good lifting.

The one thing I have to say though, if you haven't ever been to a weightlifting meet as a spectator, go! It was so cool, and while this was a national meet, and I haven't been to any local meets, I would still say to go because seeing lifting like that is really cool.

Another thing that I learned at my USAW and again after talking to people at the American Open is that people should compete more often and earlier in their development. For me specifically, I have spent the last 3 months really focusing on the lifts, and while my numbers are pretty crappy for my size (I would be pretty successful if I weight 100 pounds less and was a woman though), I still am comfortable enough with the lifts where I should be able to go out and compete. Too many people, myself included, don't think they are "ready" to compete. Just go and do it! I was hoping to register for the Baltimore Open in February, but it is already sold out, so I'll be looking into meets in April hoping to finally get that first meet out of the way.