- November 4, 2024
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She’s a second-degree black belt. As a swimmer, she was coached by Olympic gold medalist Ryan Lochte’s sister. She’s even a pretty good guitar player. But, when she got to high school, it appeared that junior Tiara Sankar had become a failure, until she found weightlifting.
Looking for her place in sports as a freshman, Sankar went out for volleyball. At the first conditioning practice, she had to run a mile and then run up and down the stadium. After that day, she never returned.
Next up was cheerleading. According to Sanker, her mother always wanted her to be “a girly-girl, but that wasn’t my thing. I wasn’t too happy with it.” Sanker didn’t make the squad, so she went on to basketball.
“I was always OK at basketball, so, when I tried out, I thought I would make the team, but I didn’t,” she said. “I was kind of shocked.”
After three failed attempts to land a spot on a team, Sanker took a break from looking for others. “I felt embarrassed, and I fell into a bit of depression,” she said.
Then she found weightlifting.
“I wasn’t expecting to fall in love with it, but, after the first practice, I was completely engulfed with the idea of weightlifting,” Sanker said. “I wanted to eat right, train hard and go to the gym every day.”
Sanker says weightlifting helped her recover from the depression the other sports produced her. Although her first day was a bit tough, seeing she had difficulty holding up the 45-pound bar, Sanker knew weightlifting was different. She wasn’t a fan of cardio exercise, which the others were full of, but she was willing to work at getting stronger.
Fast forward to this season, Sanker has already become a school record holder, over taking FPC alum Darien Halliday, one of biggest motivators, in the 101-pound bench mark with 110 pounds.
“I’ve come a long way in two years,” she said. “I now look at myself like Wow! I went from 45 to 110 pounds. Weightlifting is for me; I found what I like to do, and I’m doing it. I’m not unhappy that I didn’t make those teams because I’m very happy with where I am now.”
