BORN in Kildare, Kaitlin Saunders parents and grandparents are from Belfast, and she has been living in the city for the last eight years and is part of a four strong Team NI squad looking to win their first ever Commonwealth Games medal at weightlifting.
“It’s really exciting, I’m really looking forward to Glasgow, I’ve put a lot of work in the last four years, so it’s really good to see it paying off and being selected to go to the Commonwealth Games,” stated Saunders.
“I started weightlifting, I would say, May 2022 so the girls (Hannah Crymble and Caroline Doyle) would have been going to Birmingham about two months later.
“So, seeing the girls go definitely kind of, I would say, lit that fire in my belly thinking, gosh, if I put the work in, that could be me in four years’ time.
“So, I definitely think watching the girls go definitely made me put in the work to try and qualify this time round.”
Saunders tried a couple of different sports before taking up weightlifting: “Istarted with gymnastics when I was quite young, and I definitely think it sets the foundation for a lot of sports.
“I naturally went into CrossFit, from a movement point of view, I found not that movement is technically easy, but I was able to do it, so from there, I definitely think my interest and my love for weightlifting definitely kind of kicked off, I took it quite seriously then, kind of four years ago, when I was like, right, I want to be competitive with this.
“if you were to watch me when I was a gymnast, you would see very quickly I’m more power and I’m not flexible, I was good on floor and I was good on vault, but you put me on a beam and I couldn’t bend backwards,” laughed Saunders.
“I would say that power definitely came from gymnastics and then crossed over into CrossFit and weightlifting.”
It’s only in the last 12 months that Saunders who will compete at 77kg in Glasgow through she had a realistic shot of going to the Commonwealth Games.
“I would say, early last year, so when we kind of sat down early last year and we were kind of looking at what the rough totals were, was like, OK, I might have a chance at this, I’m going to definitely give this a go and I remember speaking to my coach and he was like, right, if this is what you want to do, then you need to commit and we need to kind of get started.
“So, as we kind of got through the qualification process and through the competitions, it was definitely looking more realistic, but honestly, until that final ranking came out, you really didn’t know where you sat.
“t’s very black and white, you either make the lift or you don’t, there is no middle ground with it and I guess that’s why they have three judges, because it is the overall vote.
“So it is one of those sports that you either make the lift or you don’t, it just depends how you perform on the day.”
Saunders’ job actually benefits her in the sporting arena.
“I am a physio, I work up in Glengormley., so I’m full-time kind of in a private clinic there, I guess my job works very well with the sport that I do. It kind of goes hand in hand”I have my fair share of everyone asking me questions in the gym for rehab, but I will say I’m probably my worst patient because I don’t listen to myself, so I will also go for my own physio and my own rehab and I’ve got my own rehab team behind me that are very good as well.
”I’m not going to lie to juggle work and training it’s really, really hard because you have to prioritise, I guess, work, but you also have to prioritise your training, but I will say my bosses, my managers, they have been unbelievably supportive, so they’re so good with working around me, working with competitions.
“If I need time off, they’re like, no, that’s absolutely fine, so it is hard, but I think it’s easier when you have a great team behind you.
“In Glasgow I’m hoping to do better than I did at Europeans, I just want those extra couple of kilos. and I want to prove that I was the right choice to take.”
