Paralympics: Pocket powerhouse's 100kg dream

By GREG ANSLEY

SYDNEY - Tracey Wright doesn't talk much about herself.

Her astonishing strength, coiled inside a pocket-sized body, speaks for her.

So does her trainer, James Tunnicliffe.

The 26-year-old powerlifter from Hamilton, he says, could take out a medal at the Paralympic Games if she can transfer her gym performance in New Zealand to the bench press in Sydney.

Wright has already shown her potential. She made her international debut at the world championships in Dubai two years ago, placing third.

Last year, she won gold at the World Wheelchair Games in Christchurch.

And her powerlifting team-mate, Aucklander George Taamaru, will be pumping for her.

Taamaru, an amputee and former Cook Islands rugby league representative, won gold in the Christchurch world games and silver in this year's New Zealand national weightlifting championships.

For Wright, Sydney will be a double first - her first Paralympics, and the first time women's powerlifting has been included.

"I'm looking forward to it, but at the same time I'm a little nervous about it," she says.

Feeling confident?

"I should be all right."

A longtime fighter, Wright was born with spina bifida, a neural tube defect that stunts the development of the spinal column and damages both the column and the nervous system irreversibly.

She grew up in a wheelchair, but determined that life should not pass her by. She competed hard, initially in short-course wheelchair racing - 100m and 200m - and with the javelin and shot-put.

In 1991, she went to Perth for the Australian junior wheelchair nationals. "One of the guys over there suggested I should look at giving powerlifting a try because of my build and short arms," she says.

"I thought I might be good at it, so I thought about it, and I did it.

"I joined a gym at the beginning of the following year and went from there."

But nothing about powerlifting is simple for athletes with a disability.

They compete only on the bench press, lying flat on the bench to take the weights down to the chest, pause, then extend them to the limits of their arms. And there are special, muscle-tearing, restrictions.

"Tracey isn't allowed to put her feet down on the ground, which helps to give [able-bodied athletes] a bit of extra power," Tunnicliffe says.

"There are certain rules in disabled competition that actually make it a lot harder for disabled athletes to compete.

"Yet in some of the weight categories the world record for the disabled is actually above that of the able-bodied. These guys are helluva strong athletes."

When Wright first began competitive powerlifting, she was lifting about 50kg to 60kg.

And now?

Wright exchanges a quick smile with Tunnicliffe. "That'd be telling," she says.

"We're hoping to bench-press 100kg," Tunnicliffe says.

This is strength by any measure.

Tunnicliffe says powerlifting is one sport in which the performance of the disabled can be compared with that of able-bodied athletes.

"I don't know of any more than four or five other women in New Zealand that have ever bench-pressed 100kg before," he says.

"It's a fairly elite club. The others have obviously been able-bodied athletes and probably 50 per cent heavier than Tracey, if not more.

"For her body weight, there wouldn't be a woman in the country that could bench-press more than Tracey, able-bodied or not.

"A 100kg press would probably be enough for a medal, but you never can tell - it depends who turns up on the day and how they perform on the day. But, certainly, Tracey's got to be competitive.

"She'll compete well. Like any sportsperson, often the big occasion brings out the best in them."

But the benchmarks for the best are rapidly rising.

Three years ago, when Wright was third in the world championships, she pressed 87.5kg - well below her present levels.

And her rivals have been pushing the pace.

In the past 12 months alone, Tunnicliffe says, the world record has been lifted by about 20kg.

And the real test remains performance at the Games.

"It's all very well doing weights in the gym, but you have to get in there and nail each lift as you go," he says.

"You can lift the weight and have it not passed for technical reasons.

"You have to satisfy three referees that you've lifted it to the level of the law - so anything can happen. And because this is the first time women have competed in Paralympic powerlifting, no one is really sure what the new benchmarks will be."

The Australians, honed by international competition, will be a strong and tough team to beat.

And there are dark horses, like Natalie Blake, the youngest member of the British team.

The 16-year-old, coached by father Keith, will compete against Wright in the up-to-56kg competition after winning last year's British Open powerlifting championship.

The Games open tonight. For Wright, the hardest part will be the wait until Saturday's competition.

"That'll be tough."

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