“I think nasty thoughts, and then I get really nasty with it,” Rebekah Tiler says when explaining the intense psychological battle an Olympic weightlifter faces as she approaches the heavy mass of metal and steel with the aim of hoisting it high above her head in a feat of amazing physical and mental strength.
The 17 year-old, who is the sole female weightlifter in the GB Olympic squad preparing for Rio next month, has a personal story to match her tenacity and power. Tiler is sponsored by a butcher, in Riddlesden, West Yorkshire, who offered to support her Olympic dreams when there were deep funding cuts in British weightlifting two years ago. Ian Hewitt, the butcher, proudly supplies Tiler with as much meat as she needs to eat. She is now one of the most surprising Olympians in Rio – and a potential gold medal winner in 2020.
There are darker pressures. Tiler has to compete beneath the threat of more funding cuts from UK Sport in an environment addled with doping. But, first, it is compelling to listen to her talk about her battle with the bar.
“I chalk my hands up and I slap my legs,” she says. “I walk to the bar …” Tiler laughs. “I speed walk really. I grab the bar and I just pull it. That’s when I get really nasty with it. I think my nasty thoughts.”
It is difficult to imagine the cheery Tiler dredging up “nasty thoughts”. She hesitates when asked to describe them. Does it run along the lines of, with choice words to be added: “I’m going to dominate you, you bastard?”
Tiler smiles demurely. “That sort of thing, yeah. Sonny Webster [her team-mate in GB’s two-person Olympic weightlifting squad] shouts at the bar. I’m calm. Or I look calm because I’m not shouting. But, in my mind I’m basically shouting what you’ve said. It’s anger. You’ve got to get nasty with it. Very nasty. Otherwise you won’t be able to lift it.”
Do weightlifters use past disappointments to summon that anger? Tiler nods. “My coach Eddie Halstead had a time at work that wasn’t good – his boss used to shout at him. So, as a younger lifter, he used that. I don’t because, well, I’m quite happy. But you still need to find a way to lift that bar. Sonny walks up and down and shouts at his bar. I just go out and lift it. I keep it simple because it’s a lot to do with your mind. We have a psychiatrist here [at Loughborough University] but I just go to the gym, wrap my hands around the bar and think: ‘Yeah, I feel good.’”
Apart from her youth, and success in breaking more than a hundred British junior and senior records in five years, Tiler is known most for the speed of her lifting. “In competition you have two minutes to do the lift. I do it in 30 seconds. The snatch is more technical because you have to lift it over your head and sit down in the bottom position. I would say the clean and jerk is easier. You clean it to there – [Tiler holds an imaginary bar beneath her chin] and then jerk it up here [straightening her arms]. The snatch is just one big movement but in the clean you remember to take a couple of deep breaths before the big push.”
Tiler’s journey from Yorkshire to Brazil, from schoolgirl obscurity to Olympic recognition, is unusual – but she makes her emergence in the straining world of weightlifting seem as natural as any teenage dream. “Dad was a bodybuilder and we had loads of machines in the garage,” she remembers. “When I was five my mum said: ‘Go and get your dad for tea.’ I went down to the garage and saw him doing all these things with his arms and I joined in. Soon everyone was saying how muscley I was at school. Then we had a sports day and I was really fast. Teachers were telling me to go to [Bingley] Harriers for sprinting. I did that and got introduced to a gym to make me faster and stronger. The guy at the gym was like: ‘Wow, you’re so strong. You’re beating all the guys in their 20s and you’re only 12. It’s crazy.’ He said: ‘If you do weightlifting you will be world class.’ So I did. I found it so easy.
“Eddie spotted me at my first competition in Ashington. I was 12 and a half. I came out and just threw it up – so fast. He was like ‘Whaaaat? I’ve got to work with that girl. I could make her so much better by sorting her technique.’ My technique was horrible.”
Halstead tells me how Tiler’s subsequent development had him scratching his head and saying: “Crikey!” At 15, she just missed a bronze medal at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. It is another measure of how far she has come that Tiler has beaten the 22-year-old Zoe Smith to Rio. “It was tough for the two of us going for one place. We both trained hard and unfortunately at the British Championships she didn’t do what she wanted. At London 2012 I was 13 and I watched Zoe on TV. She inspired me.”
Tiler has been so dominant that it was a shock when, in early February, she lost a domestic competition for the first time. Emily Godley, who is nine years older than Tiler, won the English Championship. “It was my first-ever loss at home,” Tiler says. “I wasn’t competition ready but it was nice to see Emily win. But it made me think: ‘What are you doing?’”
In April Tiler won three bronze medals, including in the overall category, at the European Championships in Norway. That performance helped Great Britain secure an Olympic place for one woman – and the selection boiled down to whether Tiler or Smith performed best at the British Championships. Smith was injured during competition – and Tiler was determined.
“My best lift was a couple of weeks ago at the British – with the 102kg snatch. Everyone was cheering and I went: ‘Yessssssss!’ Zoe had bad luck with her dislocated shoulder but it was a good performance from me. I just missed 128kg in the clean and jerk. I cleaned it and I’ve never done that ever before. I set myself up for my jerk but my technique went a bit dodgy.
“I put all my effort into this, so it’s amazing I’m going to Rio. I still can’t believe it. I’m overwhelmed. I’ve seen GB athletes like Jessica Ennis on TV but I don’t know anyone my own age. I think I’ll be the youngest there. The Olympics are so much bigger than the Commonwealths. Apparently it’s 10 times bigger. But I like it when there’s a crowd because at my local competitions there are just 10 people in the audience. That’s hard. But now I’m going to these big competitions and thousands are cheering for me.”
Are her parents flying to Rio? “No. They’ll just watch me on TV. I’ve got dogs and sisters. They’ve got to look after them. But my competition is on 10 August and I’m in Rio until the 20th. Hopefully I’ll see … what’s it called … the Jesus person?” Christ the Redeemer? “That’s him, yeah.”
The redemptive nature of sport is not always apparent in weightlifting. Halstead points out that the idea of “a level playing field” is a fallacy. He is emphatic when asked if some Olympic weightlifters in Rio will have doped: “Oh yeah, absolutely.”
Halstead tells me a sobering story about a shadowy “bloke” in international weightlifting who is known as Mr Pharmacy. Any country who employs Mr Pharmacy in some vague coaching capacity has lifters who pick up weights that leave observers muttering in disbelief.
Even at the European Championships three months ago Tiler was beaten to the silver medal by Darya Pachabut from Belarus. In November 2012 Pachabut had been banned by the International Weightlifting Federation for two years after testing positive for stanozolol. All weightlifters from Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bulgaria, Kazakhstan and Russia are now banned from competing in Rio.
“It’s not fair if people are doping,” Tiler says. “You do the hard work and they get away with these things. It’s good they’re being caught.”
Tiler expresses amazement at the weights she has seen the Chinese women lifting in training. “I was like: ‘Wow!’ They were snatching what I do in competition. I think they might just work hard – but everyone says they could be on something.”
Is weightlifting more prone to doping than most other sports? “Probably, yeah,” Tiler says. “A lot of them take steroids and stuff like that.”
Whereas the list of doping offences against the five suspended nations is shocking, GB weightlifting has a spotless record, with no top-level lifters testing positive this century. Hopefully UK Sport will remember this inequality when suggesting Tiler needs a top-eight finish in Rio to help maintain funding for her sport.
Halstead is acutely aware of the pressure but, sensibly, he downplays it to Tiler. She reacts calmly. “If I get top eight then my funding will go up. I’m not sure what will happen if I don’t finish top eight. I hope they won’t cut my funding because this is my first Olympics.”
Is it realistic for a 17-year-old to finish in the top eight? “That’s what I’m hoping for. I think I’ll need to lift 105kg in the snatch and 130kg in the clean. It’s only a few kilos more, which doesn’t sound like much – but it’s a lot. You can feel that difference and it’s hard to beat your best.”
Tiler has not forgotten the last time her funding was cut – in 2014. “It has been hard. It’s a very expensive business. Even travelling down to Loughborough is expensive.”
At least she can rely on her butcher. How did her meaty sponsor feel when her Olympic place was confirmed? “He was really chuffed. He has been a real help. When we had the funding issue we put a bit in the paper and he emailed my mum. He said: ‘I’d love to help Rebekah and sponsor her.’ It was brilliant. He supplies me with chicken and steak and eggs. All very tasty. His customers follow me closely because he’s got pictures of me in the window and he’s now putting a banner up saying I’m going to Rio. It’s pretty cool.”
The butcher might have more members of Tiler’s family to sponsor because her three sisters all have weightlifting talent. “Sophie is 13, Lisa is 11 and Emily is seven” Tiler explains. “Sophie’s backed off a little. She’s hit that age where she’s a teenager and she’s not sure if she wants to do it. But Lisa and Emily are really enjoying it. Lisa always says: ‘Oh, I’m going to beat you. You just wait for 2024.’”
So her little sister could, one day, be her biggest rival? “Probably, yeah,” Tiler says and laughs. “It’s quite scary. She is good. She is already British champion. But I am just focusing on 2020 and getting a gold medal then. Rio is just about experience and getting used to the Olympic atmosphere. I want to do well but next time I am aiming to win gold.”
