Talk about a natural.
Mere months into the sport, 17-year-old Okotokian Liv Price is lifting her way into the national spotlight after setting five new benchmarks at the Alberta Youth and Junior Powerlifting Provincials earlier this month.
“I started the weighlifting about six months ago,” said Price, a Grade 12 student at Foothills Composite High School. “At first it came kind of naturally, but I’ve improved a lot in a couple months.
“It’s cool to see your progress so you track exactly how far you’ve come.”
The former track-and-field athlete, a two-time competitor at the Alberta Summer Games in track, found her way into crossfit two years ago and from there discovered an early aptitude for the powerlifting element of the conditioning program.
“Some of the moves in crossfit are related and I got into those moves and liked those better than crossfit,” she said. “I like being able to lift lots of weight and when you stand out on the stage it’s sort of cool to have everyone watching you, the adrenaline.”
Price has a strict weekly training regimen at CrossFit MOST in Calgary with the husband and wife team of David and Jenn Swagar, her powerlifting and crossfit coaches, respectively, with five days a week of cross training along with three sessions in lifting.
Coming from a football family, featuring her brother Payton a Falcons runningback and father John – the Foothills Eagles head coach, the discipline from the gridiron to lifting iron comes natural.
“My dad pushes it. He wants me to get into pretty much everything and he helps me work out, helps with my technique,” she said. “And me and my brother work out sometimes.”
The work is paying off.
Price set five records at just her second powerlifting competition, the Alberta Youth and Junior Provincials on Nov. 7 in Edmonton.
She set new provincial benchmarks in the clean-and-jerk (82kg), snatch (61kg) and total (143kg) in the youth division and went up an age-group to establish new Alberta bests in both clean-and-jerk and total amongst juniors (ages 18-21).
The clean-and-jerk involves picking the weight from the ground to the shoulders in a squat before lifting it over the head in a jerking motion. The snatch entails a wider-grip with the weight picked up off the ground into a squat before thrusting upwards and standing it up in one fluid motion.
Staying in the zone on competition day is an exercise in letting go, though she notes the snatch is a much more challenging lift in terms of consistency.
“I try to stay calm and be happy,” she said. “I usually try to go into things pretty focused so I try to get that off my mind and stay happy.”
The provincial haul didn’t go unnoticed.
Price’s prowess powered her into an invite to compete at the Canadian Junior National Championship held in Regina in January.
It’s what she hopes is the first in many steps towards international competition.
“I’m super excited,” she said. “I want to start competing internationally and travelling to youth worlds and the youth Pan-Ams in the next couple year then hopefully the Olympics.”
