TWO of the CNMI highly regarded weightlifters are women:
Riella Ichiou and Antonette Labausa.
Antonette Labausa
Ichiuo, 23, does not believe weightlifting is a man’s sport. “I think it can be for both sexes…. When I first started weightlifting, I saw Antonette and thought, ‘if she can do this, I can do it too.’ ”
Ichiuo has been weightlifting for about a year now, and has improved tremendously. She placed second in the 76kg weight class in the 2nd Marianas Cup hosted by CNMI Weightlifting last year, and she will participate in the 81kg weight class of the upcoming Pacific Mini Games that the Commonwealth will host in June.
Seeing men lift nearly twice their weight could intimidate some women, but Ichiuo said it does not affect her performance at all. “Everybody is built differently. We can lift as much as men if we put our minds to it,” she added.
Ichiuo said Labausa remains her role model. “She made me see that it is possible to do this sport and she continues to push me to go even further and see what I’m truly capable of.”
Her advice to aspiring women athletes who feel the need to “break the bias”: “Anything is possible if you put your mind to it and if you discipline yourself to continue getting better.”
Ichiuo’s current personal best is 76kg on the clean & jerk and 58kg on the snatch.
Dominant
Antonette Labausa, 28, has been making waves in weightlifting for the past few years as she has dominated nearly every weight class that she competed in: locally such as the annual Marianas Cup, and internationally when she won three gold medals in the 2018 Micronesian Games in Yap and the Australian International Open.
He personal best is 76kg in the snatch and 101kg in clean & jerk.
As a member of the CNMI Weightlifting National Team, she will compete in the upcoming Pacific Mini Games.
Asked about “breaking the bias,” she said she has experienced, first-hand, how it feels.
“As a coach, it may be harder to work with men athletes. There’s bias in a sense that some think that maybe men coaches could make you stronger than women coaches. It’s just something that you know is there.”
Labausa believes that at a professional level, everyone has biological advantages and disadvantages but “to generalize what women can or cannot do — especially in a coaching sense — that bias is there.”
As a coach, Labausa believes she has the ability to empower other women.
“For other women to see me and other female athletes use the barbell is empowering enough…. I think more women should have the opportunity to do that.”
Noting the growth of women in other sports, particularly in soccer, Labuasa said she wants to see more female representation in weightlifting as well.
Who inspires her?
“It’s not looking up to people that inspires me,” she said. “Breaking gender-biases is what really inspires me.”
As for her advice to aspiring women athletes, Labausa said, “Don’t be afraid if you’re the only girl.”
Riella Ichiou
