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UPLIFTING DREAMSThe Story of the Pioneer of Women's Weightlifting
by Judy Glenney
“Weightlifting is something women aren’t supposed to do and they certainly don’t belong in the weight room.” The naysayers’ words kept clanging in her head. What were women supposed to do? Why couldn’t they lift weights? Grappling to find answers to these questions, Judy Glenney was torn between her passion of weightlifting and what others expected her to be. The pain was more than just emotional. “ The physical pain wasn’t all that bad, as long as I didn’t move. The emotional pain hurt the worse. In one split second my hopes and dreams were dashed. Disappointment, defeat, frustration totally enveloped me; I could think of nothing else. As I lay on the bench, waiting for the ambulance to transport me to the hospital, I felt my goal, my dream of competing on the international weightlifting stage, fade. Like the sun going down on the horizon, it was slipping away – would I see my dreams come true? Now all I could do was look back at my husband, Gary, with tears, knowing I would not see my heart’s desire come true. Taking my hand, he smiled down and just said softly, ‘It’s OK.’ But it was not OK! I’d been lifting hard for fifteen years! I silently cried, Why? Why did this have to happen now?”
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