Hail Australia’s new Olympic Amazon

Behind Eileen Cikamatana’s killer smile and impressive muscles is a humble determination to triumph for her adopted country and family at the Paris Olympics.

The dual Commonwealth Games champion and the first woman to win Commonwealth gold for two countries, will compete in the 81kg weightlifting category at her first Olympics. 

“Going to Paris will be out of this world,” the 24-year-old Fijian/Australian said. “No one would ever dream how far I have come, especially considering how naughty and tricky I was growing up. Yeah, I still am. 

“The Olympics are my dream. So much sweat and tears in the gym. The medals are what we are training for. My hopes are high.”

Photo by Giorgio Scala/Deepbluemedia

Cikamatana has literally come a long way since she was a kid growing up in the village of Levuka on the Fijian island of Ovalau, 65km north east across the Pacific from Suva.

She started weightlifting at the behest of a teacher who believed that the kid who comfortably carted bags of pig feed on her Dad’s farm could grow up strong enough to lift an adult pig – over her head.

Aged just 15 Cikamatana left her “fruit salad family” and simple village life to become a full-time athlete at the Oceania Weightlifting Institute in New Caledonia. 

“My Mum Maria is half-Fijian and half-Welsh while Dad Sevanaia (Junior) is half-Fijian and half-Chinese,” she said. “My humble beginnings keep me centered. How I was brought up by my parents has got me to where I am today. They are my Superheroes.

Photo by Giorgio Scala/Deepbluemedia

“I saw how they struggled when I was growing up. No matter how hard life was they never gave up on providing us with what we needed. I want to make them proud and to be the reason for their smiles.”

Success and smiles came quickly after moving to Noumea, New Caledonia under the guidance of Australian weightlifting royalty Paul and Lilly Coffa – who she calls “the dynamic duo”. 

“They saw the potential in me and they have taken me to a higher level,” she said. 

Competing for Fiji as an 18-year-old, Cikamatana won gold in the 90kg category at the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games. But just one year later Cikamatana was faced with another huge decision. The Fijian Weightlifting Federation brought in a new coach who insisted she relocate from her New Caledonia training base back to Fiji.

Eileen Cikamatana says she’s physically and mentally stronger than that “little village girl” who won gold at the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games

She refused, knowing her future was with Coach Coffa who famously trained the future President of Nauru Marcus Stephen to win Nauru’s first gold medal in any sport at the 1994 Victoria Commonwealth Games in Canada. Stephen describes Coffa as “the father figure of weightlifting in the Pacific region”, adding “don’t forget, Lilly is everything to us as well.”

Before moving to Nauru in 1994 Coffa was Australia’s national coach for 15 years, including at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics where tuna fisherman Dean Lukin won gold and team mate Robert Kabbas won silver. 

Paul is also one half of the famous weightlifting Coffa brothers who migrated from Sicily to Australia as teenagers. Paul’s older sibling Sam Coffa, the former Hawthorn Mayor, has been the Australian Weightlifting Federation president since 2018 following his earlier 1983-2007 term, plus he was Commonwealth Games Australia president from 1999-2018.  

Photo by Louise Evans

Cikamatana’s determined decision to stick with younger brother Paul as her coach triggered another seismic shift in her young life. She farewelled her country of birth and in 2019 became an Australian. Then a year later she relocated again, with Coffa and the Oceania Institute to Melbourne in the middle of the Covid pandemic.

Again success followed quickly with Cikamatana winning her second Commonwealth Games gold, this time for Australia in Birmingham in 2022, breaking three Commonwealth Games records in the 87kg class.

Cikamatana says she’s now physically and mentally stronger than that “little village girl” who starred in Birmingham. She also boasts improved competition personal bests of 115kg in the snatch and in the clean and jerk she’s lifted 146kg, which is the weight of a piano, a panda or a big adult pig on her dad’s farm.

Come Paris she’ll be competing in the 81kg category which she states as her natural body weight. 

“My biggest competition in Paris will be myself,” she said. “You can be your own worst enemy so I am focused on being a better athlete and a better competitor every time I am on stage.” 

Since she was 15 Eileen Cikamatana has forged her own path, moving countries twice and changing nationalities to become a proud wearer of the green and gold.

“I don’t pay attention to other competitors. I look at the weights and the numbers. Then you lift a big weight over your head, the feeling is indescribable.

“I love what I do and it loves me back. My sport challenges me to break my barriers every day.

”I’m looking forward to competing for Australia, for my coach and my family and to make everyone smile.”

By Louise Evans

This article was originally published here: Hail Australia’s new Olympic Amazon – Sportshounds