If you’re a fan of Olympic lifting, you’ve been downright spoiled in the back half of 2023, as many of the most important weightlifting competitions of the year are being held between September and December. If you’re American weightlifter Meredith Alwine, you’re probably over the moon — after all, you just won a medal at the 2023 Pan American Games.
Alwine, who competed on Oct. 22, 2023, won bronze overall in the 71-kilogram division at the multi-sport Games held in Santiago, Chile, from Oct. 21 to 24. After suffering a serious hip injury about a month prior at the 2023 International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) World Weightlifting Championships, Alwine is back in the saddle.
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Alwine went four-for-six on the day, missing her opening snatch at 100 kilograms and her final clean & jerk at 140 kilos. Her best result in each discipline was a 103-kilogram snatch (227 pounds) and a 136-kilogram jerk (299.8 pounds).
Righting the Ship
At the 2023 IWF World Weightlifting Championships in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Alwine suffered an injury to her right hip and thigh that forced her to pull out of the session and may have jeopardized her mission to make it to the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, France next year. BarBend caught up with the 2021 World Champion over the phone to find out how she bounced back so quickly.
“I have a grade-1 quad strain. For my physical therapy, I did some cupping, needling, and manual therapy around my hip flexor especially,” Alwine says of her rehab approach. “Once I returned to the barbell, we did plenty of very light tempo squats and worked partial range of motion moves from the blocks or hang for about two weeks.”
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In her post-session interview with USA Weightlifting in Chile, Alwine remarked that her Pan Am Games bronze was “the most difficult medal I’ve had to earn, which also makes it the most special.”
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Featured Image: @meredithalwine on Instagram
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