Following months of constant preparation, determination and hard work, waking up sick the day before her National Powerlifting Championship was the only thing senior Robyn Kim didn’t train for.
Robyn said after cutting weight to make her weight class, she woke up feeling ill. Nevertheless on July 7, she persevered and competed in the National Powerlifting Championship. Robyn won first place in her age group and set the state record for the total weight lifted in her division.
“It was definitely very stressful, and I felt like my strength had been kind of impacted by the sickness,” Robyn said. “But overall, I would say it was really fun.”
Robyn said she hasn’t always been a pro, and she started lifting for fun when she was in eighth grade after watching videos of the Women’s Olympic Weightlifting team. She said she began taking it to the next level during her freshman year. She competed in her first ever competition the summer after her sophomore year, where she was disqualified from the meet.
“It was a good learning experience,” Robyn said.
Since then, she has competed in five to six competitions, two of which were state championships.
Now, she said she hits the gym five to six times per week, training intensely for competition lifts.
“She spends a lot of time just figuring out how to train the best she can to improve and keep improving in the future,” said Robyn’s twin brother, senior Miles Kim.
Aside from training, Robyn said she brings her lifting experiences into many different atmospheres. She is the president of the Lifting Club at PHS, which she said is a community for people to bond over lifting, and a way to extend the idea of lifting to a broader audience.
“I wanted to found it so that it would be more inviting,” Robyn said. “I feel like for a lot of people, a community like that can seem kinda scary.”
She also was the representative at the powerlifting booth at the annual Play Like A Girl event to promote interest in lifting throughout the community.
“I think it’s a really good lesson for little kids to learn, especially girls, that powerlifting isn’t as much of a male dominated sport as it appears to be,” Robyn said. “When you’re actually at a competition, there is definitely a really big amount of women there.”
Even though Robyn has shown lots of success when it comes to being a student athlete, she said she still sometimes struggles with balancing her schoolwork with her training sessions.
“I will say it’s sometimes kind of a struggle, especially during finals week or during really busy weeks,” Robyn said. “During finals week, I either get significantly less sleep or I just have to sacrifice a day of training.”
Robyn said experiencing many tough challenges and setbacks throughout her lifting experience has taught her many lessons. “I think just not getting lost in the specific moments where maybe you didn’t do as well as you thought you would,” Robyn said. “Seeing where you started and versus where you are now is definitely important to see.”