Commonwealth Games weightlifter hoping to be role model for girls in strength sports

Eight years ago Jodey Hughes was just an average gym-goer.

Now the Strathaven weightlifter is about to embark on a second Commonwealth Games.

At 39-years-old, the civil servant knows she arrived late to the party but she is determined to inspire the next generation to take the step into strength sports.

The Canadian-born athlete admits a lack of role models had prevented her from getting involved earlier, and hopes her story of going from regular CrossFit classes in East Kilbride to the grand stages of Gold Coast in 2018 and now Birmingham in 2022 will light the fire in others.

Hughes, who finally decided to give weightlifting a go after watching the 2014 Games in Glasgow, said: “What has been really nice over the last four or five years is we are seeing more women picking up strength-type sports.

“When I first started, the lack of that was one of the things that made me think about not doing it.

“I didn’t have any positive female role models that I could look up to in that sense.

“What really motivates me is when I see girls in the gym lifting heavy weights because that is something that I never had the confidence to do before.

“So hopefully I can be a bit inspiring to people now.

“When I was younger I was terrible at sports and a little bit of a bookworm.

“My older cousin Tasha, who I really looked up to, was an ice-hockey player.

“I grew up in Canada and at that time girls didn’t really play ice hockey so I really looked up to her and I started playing ice hockey when I was 12 because of her.

“I was really terrible at it, but having that at that age and something to prove, trying to fit in and be good like my cousin was, that’s really taught me a lot over the last few years of weightlifting.

“I’m not naturally gifted