Six months ago Camilla Fogagnolo almost gave up the sport which had been her life for the last 15 years.
Now she’s preparing to fly out to the USA for the Weightlifting World Championships where she’ll be part of a 7-strong Australian team competing from November 20.
“I had a patch at the start of the year where nothing was happening, there was no improvement. I thought about giving it up but I thought I’d give myself to the end of the year to improve. And now here I am,” Fogagnolo said.
“It’s just been a consolidation of training over the last few months. It’s all been coming together.”
In June this year the 29-year-old was part of the Australian Pacific Games Team which competed in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea. She came away buoyed by two bronze medals, but disappointed after only hitting two of the six lifts.
“I think the Pacific Games was a shock for a lot of us, it was a step up. It’s probably the biggest competition I’ve ever been to.
“Now the aim is to go to the World Championships and hit all my lifts. I’m aiming for six from six. I’ll also be wanting a 90kg snatch and 115kg clean and jerk.
“But I’ll do whatever the coaching staff tell me to do. The goal is always to have as good of a competition as I can and be successful with those lifts.”
It’s a tale of redemption for Fogagnolo after missing out on last year’s World Championships by the slimmest of margins.
“The top seven by ranking by all weight divisions is how you make the Australian team and last year I just missed out, I think I was around eighth.
“I’ve had my eye on those rankings this year to make sure I was on track.”
The Tasmanian took up the sport when she was 14, after her dad introduced her to lifting.
“I was doing athletics and judo and so was my brother. Then my brother did weightlifting and he was good at it, he got to the junior Oceania level. Then dad told me I’d be good at it too, he forced me into it, so I did it as cross-training.
“It was the best decision. I’m grateful to weightlifting for everything.”
For coach, 1980 Olympian Leo Isaac, the turnaround in Fogagnolo has been remarkable.
“She’s reached a stage now where she believes she can make the 2018 Commonwealth Games Team.
“She’s just turned the corner. She’s managed to elevate her strength levels and this had made a difference.
““I want her to go over there (to the World Championships) and make as many lifts as possible – five or six. Camilla should just go for it, attack her personal bests, as she is completely ready and has nothing to lose.”
Isaac said Fogagnolo is a dream to coach.
“I’ve been coaching for 30 years and no-one has ever out-trained her. My main role is to try and stop her from over-training. I don’t need to push her, sometimes I need to hold her back.”
“She’s an easy person to coach, she will do anything required of her.”
The bond between coach and athlete is so strong they’ve become business partners.
The duo opened their weightlifting business in March this year, the Weightlifting Academy of Tasmania, and Fogagnolo credits that with her renewed sense of optimism within the sport.
“That’s been my career highlight. It’s been a growth curve. We have kids, like 14 to 15-years-old who come, it’s really all ages. We have a 61-year-old woman who just started the sport. It’s such a good environment for them to just turn up and be a part of it. You don’t have to be good,” she said.
Along with running the business and working as a massage therapist, she also trains six days a week.
“I do nine Olympic lifting sessions, they’re two hours each. I’ll also do three cardio sessions per week.
“You do what you have to do. I’m very lucky because I’m self-employed.”
While the World Championships is a tangible benefit of the improvement in the gym, Fogagnolo is just glad to have rediscovered her passion for the sport.
“I’ve taken heaps of time off over my 15 years in the sport. But I’ve always had a love for it, I always come back to it.”
Competing in the 75kg division, Fogagnolo will take to the weightlifting platform on November 27.
The World Championships is the first opportunity for athletes to lift a qualifying total for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. Australia is expected to send one female and one male lifter to Brazil in August next year.
Courtesy of: Olympics Australia