IWF120y/16 – 1987: Karyn Marshall (USA), a pioneer in weightlifting

Before the IWF officially recognised and implemented women’s events at the beginning of the 1980s, Karyn Marshall (USA) is already training in 1978 in the sport she would later excel at. In 1981, at 25, she wins her first national championships. Four years later, she becomes the first woman ever to lift the symbolic weight of 300 pounds (136kg), and in 1987, in Daytona Beach (Florida), she is one of the US hopes to win the first world championships titles at offer. In this inaugural IWF women’s showcase, nine bodyweight categories are on the programme. In eight of them, Chinese lifters show an impressive supremacy, and despite a Snatch gold for Arlys Johnson-Maxwell, an overall gold is missing from the home delegation. In the 82.5kg category, Marshall dominates operations, with a 95-125-220 outcome, thus becoming the first non-Chinese female world champion. In the subsequent editions of the Championships, she isn’t so successful, but she still earns silver in 1988 (Jakarta, INA), 1989 (Manchester, GBR), and 1990 (Sarajevo, YUG). The 1987 consecration has a special taste for Marshall: after getting a Bachelor of Science (nursing degree), she works for some months as a nurse, but for the next 10 years she is a financial analyst. When the October 17, 1987 Wall Street crash shook the world, the Daytona World Championships were just two weeks away. Despite her 10/12 hours in the office, she manages to train at night and still makes the heaviest lifts at the IWF showcase in Florida. After the end of her career, she became a chiropractor.