Last week I had the privilege of competing at the Powerlifting High School Nationals in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. When looking into this competition after realizing I qualified from my first meet in January, I was beyond excited. I Googled the dates and saw that the meet was held over four days and that my weight class would be lifting on Shabbat. I immediately reached out to the meet director to request a religious exemption and was told I could compete on Thursday as opposed to Saturday. This was a disadvantage to me because all the other girls would know my score ahead of time, and have an “easier” chance of beating it by a slight difference and winning. Despite this, I told my coach and we started to prepare.

When preparing for a powerlifting meet you train over a few months to lift the absolute most that is possible come competition day. My goal going into this meet was to total at least 400 kg beating my personal best of 385 kg (a total is your added best attempts from each lift). This goal was realistic until I injured my leg and could not squat for two weeks. I was very nervous but I stayed hopeful that I could still accomplish this goal and trusted the adjustments my coach made to my programming. Now, after prepping from January to April the day finally came to fly off to New Orleans. I want to thank my abba for flying with me and then driving the hour and 30 minutes from New Orleans to Baton Rouge to make this meet possible for me to attend. Since this meet was throughout the weekend, we went to the only kosher restaurant in New Orleans and picked up food for the next four days, including Shabbat. Thursday, the day I lifted, I wore my Magen David necklace proudly with a yellow ribbon tied in my hair in honor of the hostages still trapped in Gaza and was ready to do my best. The songs I used to lock in were עם ישראל חי and חרבו דרבו. Those two songs have held me together throughout this war as my older brother is a soldier and no matter what I do he and the rest of Tzahal and Israel are always always on my mind.

I weighed in Thursday morning, said my Tehillim, and was ready to lift. I ended off the day with a total of 402.5 kg (squat 150 kg, bench 80 kg and deadlift 172.5 kg) and could not thank Hashem enough for allowing the day to go so smoothly. Next came the hard part, waiting to see how the other girls in my weight class performed to determine my placing. All of Shabbat I was pacing and asking people for updates on what was going on to try to get some reassurance that I would make at least top five. The end of the session was approaching and I was told I won by 17.5 kilograms as the lowest-weighing competitor in my weight class defying all the odds that were against me. I proudly went to receive my first place medal while wearing my Shabbat skirt and the same Magen David necklace. This experience taught me that being Jewish isn’t an excuse to back down, it’s a reason to stand up. We stand up for each other as Am Yisrael, for our beliefs, and especially for our passions. As a Jewish female powerlifter, I was proud to stand up on that podium to represent my religion and my people, to prove that as a Jew and a girl, I can do anything I put my mind to.