A weighty matter

Mike Sciacca

Barbies were never her thing, really.

Sure, she toyed around with the infamous doll from time to time, and

even played the game of “dress up” as a child. But, ever since she was

seven years old, Maryn Ciarelli said, things of an athletic nature were

the things that nurtured her.

Ciarelli became very good on the soccer field, where she played

forward until the end of eighth grade. She even played volleyball, and

competed in track and field. Eventually, she would give up soccer to

pursue another sport, one that hardly receives mention: weightlifting.

Specifically, Olympic weightlifting.

“I have really enjoyed this type of lifting from a very early age,”

said the 20-year-old, whose first lifting experiences, at age 7, began

with a PVC pipe. “It’s a sport I really love, and I’ve made some really

great friends through it.”

Ciarelli “really got into” Olympic lifting in the eighth-grade, the

same year she began to enter competitions. Ciarelli has been a member of

the Junior National team for four years running and she departs Sunday to

spend the summer at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs,

Colo. There, she will display her talents before the Olympic Training

Committee and in-house coaches in an effort to be “accepted into their

resident program.”

“I’ve done well this past year at various competitions and [I] have

been able to get my name noticed a bit more,” Ciarelli said. “This trial

run will allow me the chance to show what I can do before some very

important people in the sport.”

The 5-foot, 5-inch Ciarelli competes in the 63 kilograms class, where

a lifter has to keep her weight at or under 139 pounds. The two lifts

that she competes in are the clean and jerk, and the snatch.

The clean and jerk movement consists of two parts: you take the bar

from the floor to the shoulders in one movement, then jerk the bar from

the shoulders overhead.

The snatch involves taking the bar from the ground straight overhead

in one movement.

Ciarelli perfects these movements during a six-days-a-week workout

schedule at the weight training room at Huntington Beach High. On three

of these days, Ciarelli faces grueling, two-a-day workouts, that can last

up to two hours each.

You could say that the dominant gene in her family has to do with

athletic prowess.

Ciarelli graduated from Huntington Beach High in 1999. She played volleyball for two years and threw the shot put and discus for four

years. She left the school as the all-time record holder in the discus

(136 feet 6 inches). Her older sister, Allison, was the Orange County

Female Volleyball Player of the Year, and also was the state tournament

MVP in 1997. Younger sister, Katelyn, recently was named All-Orange

County in the discus as a sophomore.

Then there are her parents.

Her mother, Stephanie, is the strength coach at Huntington Beach High

and was one of the original female powerlifters. In 1976, she became the

American record holder in the squat and deadlift.

Her father, Tony, a former powerlifter who ran the strength program

and was defensive coordinator at Newport Harbor High (1989-97), is the head football and track throwing coach at Huntington Beach. Maryn

Ciarelli was under her father’s tutelage while in the track program at

Huntington Beach High, and continues to be under his influence in the

training room.

“She possesses a natural strength level, and that’s an aspect of basic

genetics -- mostly from her mother,” he said. “She’s very dedicated to

this and loves the sport and the people she’s met. She definitely is

competing at a world class level.”

In April, she finished third (while competing in Junior division) at

the Senior Nationals in Shreveport, La. One month later, she parlayed

that strong showing by garnering three gold medals at the Junior Pan

American Championships held in Mexico City.

Two weeks ago in Irving, Texas, the Golden West College student

participated in the USA Weightlifting 2001 World Team Trials and finished

third overall in her weight division.

Her next competition is the Under-23s in Mexico City in August.

Currently, she ranks 16th nationally.

Ciarelli’s ultimate goal is to make the U.S. Olympic team. While 2004

is a possibility, Tony Ciarelli is setting his sites on the 2008 games.

“I would really love to make the 2004 trials and the Olympic team,”

Maryn Ciarelli said, “but statistics show that 27 or 28, is the prime age

for a female lifter. “The 2008 games would put me at 28.”

The training for those lofty goals continues, as Ciarelli continues to

put in numerous hours of sweat and hard work in the weight room, all in

preparation for Sunday’s departure for Colorado Springs.

She wouldn’t have it any other way.

“I really love this sport,” she added. “I enjoyed playing team sports,

but lifting is completely different. You don’t have to rely on anybody

else. The pressure is solely on me and I compete well under pressure.”