Red Light.
A review of the MDUSA Open.
Two Saturdays ago Ashley, Jason, and myself drove to Fort Mill, SC to witness the awesomeness that is the MuscleDriver USA Open. After an eventful ride up there we arrived just in the nick of time for Jason to check in and weigh in. Nothing like living on the edge. MuscleDriver sells gym equipment and sponsors Olympic weightlifting athletes. Go check out their webpage! (http://www.muscledriverusa.com/)
We were able to see the last lifts for our two youngest athletes, Erin and Mina. They crushed it! It is incredible to see these two young ladies so passionate about the sport of Olympic weightlifting. The best part is... they aren't even in their teens yet. Forces to be reckoned with... just wait. Watch out boys... we are building beautiful strong lady beasts over at BSAX, you are going to have to learn to keep up with them.
After Jason competed it was off to the local Chick-fil-A for nourishment. While we spent all day being occupied with the competition, time flew by. There was never a point where I thought..."is this ever going to end". This might have been attributed to having such a positive atmosphere. Probably one of the neatest aspects of this sport is that you don't have to know the person that is up on the platform lifting to want them to do well. Everybody cheered and applauded. Everybody had something encouraging to say before and after lifts. Love it!
Towards the end of the day Jeremiah lifted. He is the one who really popularized lifting at BSAX! It slowly caught hold and now we are spreading it out into the community. All of Jeremiah's hard work has paid off because...HE IS GOING TO THE AMERICAN OPEN! It is the Super Bowl of weight lifting competitions. He gave us heart palpitation during his clean and jerk attempts but he came through! He also took 3rd overall!
Aside from seeing the BSAX crew represent us well, I was very impressed with MDUSA as a whole. Their facilities, staff, athletes, and coaches were all top notch. By the way their athletes are National Champions, World Team members, dominating the Pan-American and American Open... and they even have an Olympian. No big deal, right? They are some of the BEST in their sport. I really enjoyed watching them lift! It was nice reminder that hard work and dedication produces results.
While Olympic weightlifting is not my everyday exercise I do appreciate the lifts and the sport. I am easing my way back into barbell club and look forward to spreading the word and supporting others who are interested in the sport. If you know anyone who wants to try Olympic lifting, send them our way!