Olympic weightlifter David Liti shares his journey to becoming a high-performance athlete. Video / Alyse Wright
Kiwi weightlifter David Liti has always had a fractured relationship with food.
Skipping breakfast and lunch or having incorrect portion sizes to suit his type of training are habits built in him since high school.
It’s only now that he’s been selected for his second Olympic Games to compete in the men’s +102kg division that he’s started learning to eat properly.
“For a lot of years, I used to eat once a day, which was just a binge eat at the end of the day - whatever was at home for dinner,” Liti told the Herald.
These customs lamentably came from his family circumstances growing up in Auckland, as one of seven children.
“My sister took care of a lot of me and my siblings and so it was hard because she was just coming out of university and some of my other siblings were still in high school.
David Liti is out to defend his weightlifting title. Photosport
“$5 was what I got for lunch and bus fare out of my sister’s pocket. There’s not much [lunch] you can buy for $2.50.
“So for a lot of years, I just ate once and whatever was at home.”
It’s something that clearly hasn’t affected his performance.
Liti is a two-time Commonwealth Games medallist and an Olympian. Competing at Tokyo, Liti lifted 178kg in the snatch and a personal best of 236kg in the clean and jerk for an overall total of 414kg, equalling his personal best for fifth place.
At the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games, he competed in the 105kg+ division, establishing a new Games record - 403kg combined total. Here, Liti was awarded the David Dixon Award for sporting spirit.
“It’s such a privilege,” he continued. “Not a lot of people get to go to a second Olympics and I’m fortunate enough to be the sixth weightlifter to do it.”
Being an Olympian and ensuring he can reach his highest potential, Liti has started working with a dietitian.
“I have the help of a dietitian, and for the last two and a bit years, I’ve been learning to eat three times a day.”
He said they work in baby steps, focusing on eating three meals a day before tackling calories and macros.
“I’m excited to learn a little bit more,” he said.
Dieting correctly isn’t the only perceived weightlifting stereotype the 27-year-old battles with.
On a less serious note, Liti told the Herald that the number one question is that he gets asked is ‘how much do we bench?’.
“We don’t bench,” Liti answered. “There’s this thing where we say [with] weightlifting if you don’t respect the weights, you’ll hurt yourself.”
“So even though it’s 70kg, you’ve still got to give it the respect it deserves.”
Liti confirmed he does not win every arm wrestle, his mates often beat him. He is targeting a personal best lift when he takes to Paris to represent New Zealand at the 2024 Olympics but also has other big plans outside the arena.
He told the Herald there’s no way he’d eat French delicatessen snails but revealed what food he’s most looking forward to.
He says eating all kinds of food is the perk of his job.
“Number one croissants, second, more croissants and third, more croissants.”
“We [weightlifters] call it a class of freedom. We eat and do whatever we want. We can be at whatever body weight we want to be in and there’s no restrictions.”
Liti’s also seeking to have a fair amount of fun throughout the event he explained in his selection announcement.
Being known for walking around the Olympic village with a boom box he often tells athletes from other nations that he’s a 100m sprinter.
“I might say I’m a cyclist at this Olympics, just because of Tour de France. Or maybe I’ll tell everyone I’m a professional croissant eater.”
Bonnie Jansen is a multimedia journalist in the NZME sports team. She’s a football commentator and co-host of the Football Fever podcast. She’s equally passionate about women’s sport and was part of the Te Rito cadetship scheme before becoming a full-time journalist.
