I’m all about busting gender stereotypes. I mean, I’m a woman in science who’s the breadwinner for her household. I also bust stereotypes because I like to lift weights. Not little things either, I bench 80lbs and squat 13olbs.  So, today’s spotlight is on a few other women who bust stereotypes. Sarah Robles and Jessica Gallagher are two Olympic weightlifters, amazing women, and also run the blog Pretty Strong.

Sarah and Jessica

Who Are These Ladies?

Sarah and Jessica are Olympic weightlifters. That means they lift very, very heavy weights. Sarah Robles is currently the United States champion in women’s Olympic weight lifting. She actually just competed in the Olympics in the 75+kg weight category and placed seventh with a snatch of 120lbs and a clean and jerk of 145. Here are some videos of Sarah doing these lifts.

Sarah has been doing most of the updating recently as Jessica had a minor injury for a while. Sarah is also some other awesome things like a former Girl Scout who continues to volunteer, a cross-stitcher, and a fan of Quantum Leap.

Why it’s So Great

One of the things that brought this to my attention, and a number of other people’s, is the fact that Sarah being a weightlifter and therefore not a typical skinny pretty athlete had no sponsorship and was living on almost nothing while she trained as an Olympic hopeful. Now that she’s actually been to the Olympics, things are changing and Solve Media has picked her up. She posts about a variety of things related to weightlifting including training tips, lifting tips, her daily schedule, and meals for athletes on a budget. Now, she also has a great overview of what it was like going to the Olympics.

That is a very heavy weight!

Join, Follow, and Read

Obviously, check out the blog and the RSS. You can also follow Sarah on Facebook.

Here’s one more video of Jessica since I talked mostly about Sarah.