Women on Weights: Ailbhe Mulvihill

It’s Women in Sports week, and ahead of International Women’s Day (March, 8th,2024) we caught up with Irish international Olympic weightlifter, Ailbhe Mulvihill (check out our full high-performance athlete series here!).

On the back of her recent success at the European Weightlifting Championships (Sofia, Bulgaria) the 24-year-old national champion, and three-time Irish record holder shared insights on her journey as a female weightlifter and her experience taking part in what society traditionally consider “a man’s sport”.

Pictured: Ailbhe celebrating at the Senior World Weightlifting Championships – Saudi Arabia (September, 2023).  Photo by yks.media.  

Ailbhe took up weightlifting back in 2017, as part of the Gaisce president’s award where, for 13 weeks, she learned how to snatch, clean, and jerk. Though her first experience was short-lived due to an “unrelated weightlifting injury”, Ailbhe decided to pick up the bar again in 2019 when she was a college student in the University of Limerick. Since then, the Cork weightlifting club athlete has represented Ireland on both the European and World stage, and has improved her competition total to (174kg). For those who are not familiar with weightlifting, that’s a 78kg snatch and a 96kg clean and jerk! Extremely impressive.

What has the journey been like for you since you started weightlifting again?

The journey has been wild! When I was in my first year of college I remember saying to my coach that all I wanted was to be able to put on the Irish singlet. So, to have done that on the world stage is a dream come true. It’s funny though, it seemed like such an unrealistic goal at the time. But I was so determined.

I had the qualification total for the European U-23 weightlifting championships written up on my wall as a daily reminder. COVID 19 came in and I didn’t have any training equipment at home so I bought my own bar and plates and I set up outside of the back garden. I got the back of an old wardrobe and used it as a platform. And I used two recycling bins as a squat rack. I got up every morning at eight o clock to train and again at five in the evening. I had this goal in my head and nothing was going to stop me!

Did you have any concerns when you first started weightlifting?

I had concerns about looking too big and bulky. But do you know what’s funny? When I tell people that I am a weightlifter the first thing they say is – ‘huh, you don’t look like a weightlifter!’. I think the stigma around females and weightlifting has improved in the last few years. But having been told in the past that I am a girl and shouldn’t be lifting weights because it’s a ‘man’s sport’ and that I am going to hurt my knees highlights that there is still more to be done.

Pictured: Ailbhe cin action at the Senior World Weightlifting Championships – Saudi Arabia (September, 2023).  Photo by yks.media. 

What advice would you give to a young girl who wants to take up weightlifting?

1. Don’t worry about what other people think or say: When I started, one of the things I found most challenging was other people’s reactions to it. There were very few people that had anything positive to say. It didn’t stop me from weightlifting but it was exhausting. So, if you can, just focus on yourself.
   

2. Find a good coach: Look around for gyms that have coaches who specialise in Olympic weightlifting and who know how to tailor a programme for your needs and stages of development. You don’t want to develop unhealthy movement patterns that can lead to pain and injury further down the line!
   

3. Don’t be afraid to fail:  Failed attempts are a given when you weightlift. It’s part of the sport. So, don’t be worried about getting it wrong or not being able to master the technique at first. That will come overtime with practice and under the eye of a good coach! The important thing is that you take your time and go at your own pace.
   

4. Maintain a healthy relationship with food: You do not need to look a certain way in order to perform. I used to have a bad relationship with food but now I am eating more that I have ever done before, and it has really helped with my performance. There can be pressures from society to fit in or look a certain way as a woman, but you need to look after your body first, and that starts by fueling correctly.
   

5. Work on building a good foundation of strength: It is important to have a good baseline of strength when doing Olympic weightlifting. Make sure that your small muscle groups are also being looked after as well as the big ones. You don’t want to develop muscle imbalances. Working on mobility and stability, particularly for the shoulders is key.

What would be the most common areas for injury and how do you manage/ prevent them?

It is really individual and depends on the types of muscle imbalances that you might have. We try to minimise injury by looking at my areas of weakness or deficit as an athlete and working on them. I also have a background in Physiotherapy so I am aware of my body and know when it is appropriate to push and increase the training load and volume. Knowing my body’s limits and when not to push is also a key part of staying injury free. But overall, prevention is better than treatment. 

Pictured: Ailbhe in preparation for the World Senior Weightlifting Championships – Saudi Arabia (October 2023) Photo by one_kilo.

Do you have any technical advice/tips for improving your snatch and cleans?

Everyone has different things that they need to improve on, so what I need to work on might be very different to what my training partner needs to work on. But for example, if you are someone who struggles to keep the bar close to your body when you lift, it might help if you do snatches from a hang position and focus on getting full extension through your hips. As for building confidence under the bar, I have found that snatch balances or overhead squats help. Click here for more tips on how to improve your Olympic lifts.

Follow Ailbhe on her journey and keep up to date with her daily lifting on Instagram @ail.mulvihill

Note: As part of their women in sport initiative, Weightlifting Ireland are currently running a programme for transition year and fifth year students that teaches young girls how to weightlift. As Ailbhe highlighted “It’s a great way to introduce girls to the sport in an environment that they are familiar and comfortable in”. If you are a secondary school teacher and want to learn more about this programme find more information here.