By Rachal Fleury

Sally Thomas knew from an early age that she wanted to go to the Paralympic Games one day. She just needed to find the right sport.

After a couple of failed bids to make it in track and field, Thomas turned her attention to powerlifting and is now gearing up for her second Paralympic Games in Beijing, China, from September 6-17.

Powerlifting is a test of upper body strength. Competitors must lower the bar to the chest, hold it motionless on the chest and then press it upwards to arms length with locked elbows. Athletes are given three attempts in total and the winner is the athlete who lifts the highest number of kilograms.

Thomas says one of the aspects of the sport she enjoys the most is that it is based on weight classifications and not on disability. She likes that she is competing against lifters who have more ability than she does. For example, the majority of her competitors have some use of their legs; Thomas has none.

“It’s more of a challenge and I like a challenge,” said Thomas, who lives and trains in Ottawa. “When you win you beat everyone, not just people with your same disability.”

For Beijing, Thomas has set a lofty goal as she is aiming to lift 82.5 kg. Her current best lift is 75 kg.

“I’ve got some work to do,” she said of reaching that weight. “I’m not there yet.”

A life in sport

Thomas got involved in sports as a child after her mom enrolled her to help her overcome her shyness. She took up both wheelchair basketball and track and field, but focused primarily on track. She went on to make the time qualifications for wheelchair racing in the 100m and 200m for the Atlanta and Sydney Paralympic Games and for two world championships, but never made it onto those Canadian Paralympic teams. By 2000, her frustration with her lack of progress was mounting.

“I was close enough that I could smell it,” Thomas said. “But when younger people started making the team and I didn’t, I thought ‘this is silly’.”

In an effort to improve her race times, Thomas started lifting weights. But what was supposed to make her faster actually had an adverse affect.

“I just got worse,” she said. “The stronger I got the slower I got.”

But not all was lost, as through her weight training, Thomas became involved in powerlifting.

“My lifting just got better and better,” she said. “In six months, I had surpassed where I was in track.”

Learning from Athens

In 2004, just four years after taking up powerlifting, Thomas realized her Paralympic dream in Athens. She finished seventh out of eight competitors in her weight class and while she cherishes the experience, she says there are a lot of things she’ll do differently in Beijing.

“I was under the assumption that I would have seen everyone (who would be competing in Athens) so I knew where I stood,” said Thomas. “But then I got there and there were two girls I had never seen before and they were good! That threw me off a bit, but I won’t let that happen again.”

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