The sport of Powerlifting traces its roots back to ancient Greece. In the modern day world meanwhile two Indian teenagers are taking the powerlifting world by storm.
13 year old Noa Sara Eappen and 15 year old Kasha Nia Sachdev are not your regular teenage girls. They are also powerlifting world champions who are raising the bar at a very early age in what is a predominantly male dominated sport.
At the World Powerlifting Championship held in Kyrgyzstan recently, Noa and Kasha won gold medals and also broke world records in their weight categories.
The sport of powerlifting has three different disciplines - the squat, benchpress and deadlift. All three together also make up the 'Full Powerlifting' category.
Noa and Kasha were guests recently on the Times of India's sports podcast - Sportscast - and talked about their journeys so far, the societal reaction when they began training at a very early age, how powerlifting has made them more confident and given them more self belief, their future plans of continuing to pursue competitive sport and more.
Excerpts from the Sportscast podcast...
How did this journey begin for you? How old were you when you first began powerlifting?
Kasha: I was around 8 years old and I had just had a surgery done on my knees for a condition that I had called genu valgum, which is more commonly known as knock knees. I was in all kinds of therapies, every kind of rehabilitation that my parents could take me to. My dad - he saw improvement, but not at the rate that he wanted and so after tons of research hje settled on bringing me into the gym. He had done his research and he realised that there were many benefits for me and it was showcased in myself after a few months of my training and I really started enjoying going to the gym. It was a really fun experience for an 8 year old child and that was when my dad started training me in powerlifting, because he himself was a powerlifter at the time and he would compete. I started enjoying powerlifting and I saw my aptitude in it building and that's when I started to love the sport. After that I would just go to the gym every single day.
Noa: I was 10. My mom is a total fitness enthusiast and she first took me to the gym. I was quite short for my age and also bordering on being overweight. And when I went to the gym I met Kasha and Nicholai (Kasha's father) and I was totally inspired by how they would lift. I had never heard of the sport (powerlifting). They thought that they would be able to train me and I was lifting very well. My lifts were strong. Nicholai sent my videos to his coach who realised that I might actually be very good at this sport and they agreed that they should train me and that's how my journey began.
Kasha Nia Sachdev and Noa Sara Eappen
What we have seen for a while now is women in sport breaking glass ceilings across the board. Would it be fair to say that picking up a sport like powerlifting, which is fairly male dominated, has helped you with your own self confidence and self belief?
Kasha: It has definitely played a part in my journey toward self improvement. Seeing myself in a different light. I see myself reflected in so many women, so many in powerlifting and in other sports because I see the struggles that they are facing, despite the fact that I don't even know them and (sometimes) don't even know the sport they are playing. But I relate to the fact that we are all women with preconceived notions imposed upon us that we have to be a certain way and even if we are lifting we have to be careful, we have to be mild. That i s one thing that I have always disagreed with - pre-sport and post-sport. I feel that even more so now when I see women being given opportunities and women not being given opportunities.
Noa: I have definitely gained a lot of confidence from when I first started. I was very self-conscious and I was teased a lot in class. I realised over time, while lifting, that I had no reason to be self-conscious. I have something that I am good at and I have no reason to listen to what anyone has to say. So, I have definitely come a long way in terms of my confidence and how I have grown.
Kasha: In Noa's case - not only has she gained a new mindset, she has also put in the work to change what she didn't particularly like in herself. How much she has grown in the past few years that she has been lifting. So, not only does your mindset change - you are also given the opportunity to make actual change in yourself. And I feel that's something I have also done. Previously when I was younger I was not very confident in my body and in myself. It's one thing to say - ok, I can deal with it, I can learn to love myself and while that is so important I think it's also important to put in an effort to help yourself accept yourself and also work on the things that you might not like about yourself.
Kasha Nia Sachdev
What are the biggest challenges you have faced?
Noa: What I found hardest to do was maintaining my weight, losing weight to remain in my weight category. That is what I found hardest, while balancing school, homework etc. So I found that to be a bit of a challenge because I have to spend an hour and a half on the cardio machine to drop weight
Kasha: The challenges were many. For me, gaining weight was a real task. We could technically compete in any weight category, but the thing is that at a higher or lower weight category we have the opportunity to break records which is something that we chase as women who feel confident that they will be able to achieve numbers that they have trained for. It's not the goals, but the records that really do matter. I am going to the 10th grade right now, I was in the 9th grade while competing. I am in the IGCSE programme, which is quite challenging with the exams and the assessments. It's a task. Support wise - a lot from my dad, he is my rock. He has been there throughout, I never go to the gym without him, he does train me. And my Mom is also equally helpful, she babies me so much and takes care of me, especially out of the gym.
Initially when I did start training at 8 years old everybody criticised my parents. Not so much me because I was just a child, but definitely my parents - they got lots of hate.
Kasha Nia Sachdev
Why was that? Was it because they thought that this is not something that a girl should be doing?
Kasha: What they cannot understand is wrong, basically. They said that I should be out playing on playgrounds. My mom was messaged and phoned by multiple of her friends and other people in our society and in our community and it was quite jarring because I was just trying to recover (post knee surgery) and my parents were doing what they knew was best for me. They (her parents) stuck by my sport and I stuck by my sport and here I am now.
There is also this school of thought that strength sports like powerlifting and weightlifting can impede growth. The popular opinion seems to be that these sports, especially when taken up at a younger age can stop growth spurts. But the two of you have had very different experiences right, which actually shatter that myth....
Noa: When we first started training it was mainly for my height and my weight. My grandparents had to get used to the idea of me training and lifting weights. They were unsure of how it would affect me. But they realised that that (adverse effects of powerlifting) was a myth. My mom had done a lot of research and we realised that I was growing a lot more actually and it was not stunting my growth. So it has definitely benefited me
Kasha: There's a whole science behind it too. I grew nearly a foot while training. I am 6 feet tall. I am taller than most people I see, even in the gym. When you are training, your pituitary gland secretes a growth hormone that allows you to recover and grow taller. Your bones get stronger, your height increases. It's extremely beneficial. It's really old wives' tales spun around what people wanted to believe
Noa Sara Eappen
Let's talk about the recent World Powerlifting Championship in Kyrgyzstan. Both of you won gold medals there and broke world records. Was this your first international tournament?
Noa: Ya, this was our first international competition and I thought that it was absolutely thrilling to compete and get to hold the Indian flag (after the wins). It was amazing. I couldn't get over the feeling and to have broken world records, it felt so great. It was a proud moment for both of us.
Kasha: I was elated. You know, Noa and I - once we came back to the hotel, we were just sitting in silence. We couldn't comprehend the fact that we just stood on a podium and held up the Indian flag and our medals and our certificates. I still can't believe it . It's like setting something down in stone. I am grateful
Kasha Nia Sachdev
What about the support structures outside of the families? What kind of reception/support have you received from say your school, your class-mates etc.?
Kasha: Our school has always been supportive. Going back to the second grade. I once brought in a video of one of my lifts and my whole class was applauding. It's really never felt better. My teachers have always been supportive, especially our Headmaster and our accolades have always been celebrated. It's really heartwarming. We have always been in the bulletin after our competitions and our school's Instagram handle puts up posts after our wins and it feels great.
Noa: At first I was teased a lot by the boys in my grade and that brought my confidence down a bit. After I won, I tagged one of the boys in my class to show them that I had nothing to be ashamed of and what they were making fun of me - that meant nothing to me. So, our school, our principal and our teachers have all always been supportive and try to help us and cheer us on.
Kasha Nia Sachdev
At your age one of the biggest if not the biggest challenge is to keep up with school work. As you grow older the academic pressure keeps increasing. How do the two of you manage to juggle school with training and competition? How big a challenge is that?
Kasha: The pressure , My God. Not so much from my parents, but from myself. My parents are like - 'we know you try hard, just take a chill pill. But academics really mean a lot to me. I really enjoy reading and writing and studying and I just want my grades to reflect that. Sometimes I don't get enough time to study because of what I am trying to do and all my teachers tell me - Kasha, listen, I know you tried your best. I know you don't have a lot of time. But I always take it on myself to get that A (grade) and that medal because they are equally important to me. I know school just leads to college and I just want to keep doing well there too.
Noa: I have struggled to juggle my school and homework, classes and training. But my parents have always been supportive, trying to make sure that I don't get overwhelmed. They tell me that as long as I am doing my best and trying my hardest, it's ok.
How fierce is the competition in your age/weight category in international powerlifting?
Kasha: There are tons of other girls in our age and weight categories (in international competitions). You are competing against your competitors which you have trained for in the gym already. Again, I feel like it's more about the records . If you have trained for it, every single day for weeks, you know what kind of competition you will get in your age and weight category, so you are slightly mentally prepared for that. It's again, not so much the competition but the records.
Kasha Nia Sachdev and Noa Sara Eappen
Considering powerlifting is so important to you and means much more to you than something you are just passionate about or is a hobby, do you get to do regular teenage things from time to time?
Noa: Sometimes when we are close to a competition, we have to miss out on a few plans and parties. But we try to make time. Both our parents are very supportive when it comes to us having a life outside powerlifting so they are always trying to make sure that we can balance our normal life with training and competition
What's the plan once your studies are completed? Have you drawn up any plans vis a vis pursuing sport at that stage of your life?
Kasha: In powerlifting there's only so far that you can go. It's a relatively more niche sport. While I would like to continue powerlifting because that's my passion project, maybe I would want to move into an Olympic certified sport like weightlifting or some other strength sport, I am not quite sure, but I would just like to keep going higher. I don't want to stop here
Noa: Because we have done a lot in powerlifting, I would also like to switch to weightlifting and compete in the Olympics and Commonwealth Games. I definitely want to take this further. I want to compete for India. That feeling was something that I am never going to forget and I want to continue doing that.
You can listen to the full episode of TOI Sportscast with Kasha and Noa here
