Going for the gold: Medina weightlifter Ella Nicholson has set sights on 2028 Olympics

Ella Nicholson doesn't mind having a lot of weight on her shoulders. She can hoist almost 300 pounds overhead. About to begin her senior year at Medina — all her classes will be online through the University of Akron — Nicholson's tremendous strength and work ethic have put her in position to be on the United States weightlifting team at the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. There is still plenty of work to be done, but the 5-foot-6, 165-pound, rock-solid Nicholson, who turned 18 on Sunday, already has made a name for herself in just 19 months of Olympic-style lifting. "It would mean the world," she said of competing in Los Angeles in four years. "It would make all the work I've put in and will put in over the next four years worth it." A successful CrossFit athlete for nearly 2½ years prior to switching to Olympic lifting, Nicholson currently is ranked No. 1 among all U.S. women, regardless of weight class, in the junior division, which is for competitors 18 to 20 years old. With competition bests of 110 kilograms (242.5 pounds) in the snatch and 133 kilograms (293.2) in the clean and jerk, she is No. 4 among all U.S. senior women. The three athletes ahead of her are or have been Olympians. "She's not a normal teenager," said 32-year-old Trey Vaughan, Nicholson's lifting coach at Root 18 CrossFit. "She shows up every day like this is her job. From the way she eats to the way she sleeps to the way she recovers, all that takes priority over everything else. "Plus, she's got that competitive gene. She wants to win at everything she does. It's the Michael Jordan gene. I call it the 'it' factor that only certain athletes possess. That's the best thing about her. She's ferociously competitive, but she's still a kid. She's a very lighthearted, nice, approachable young lady. She's a very normal teenager, but when she's training, she's in that mode." Nicholson, a swimming instructor and lifeguard at the Medina Community Recreation Center, is currently training for the International Weightlifting Federation Junior World Championships, which will be held in Spain in September. She also is leaning toward competing in the IWF Senior Worlds, which will be held in December in Bahrain, a country in the Middle East. Competing in the 76-kilogram division (167.5 pounds) at the Arnold Sports Festival in Columbus in February, Nicholson won North American Open Series titles in the U17 and junior divisions with an American-record lift of 109 kilograms in the snatch (240.3 pounds) and personal-best 133 kilograms in the clean and jerk. Her combined total of 242 (533.5 pounds) was her best in competition. Nicholson added gold medals in the snatch (American-record 110 kg), clean and jerk (125 kg, 275.5 lbs) and combined total (235 kg, 518 lbs) in June at the IWF Junior Pan-American Games in Columbia while parents Jeannine and Cliff watched a live stream of the event from Medina. "It was extremely hot, but it was fun," she said. "We walked to the mall and went to dinner, but that was about it. There was an airport, a hotel and a gas station, but it was all farmland besides that. There were a bunch of cows across from our hotel." Having previously competed in Albania and Mexico, Nicholson has grown accustomed to traveling to foreign countries with Vaughan while her parents stay at home with younger brother Cliff, an accomplished wrestler and football player who will be a junior at Medina. "At first it was really weird," she said of traveling without her parents. "I was just thinking, 'This is crazy.' Now that I've done it a couple times, it's more normal. Having (Vaughan) with me makes it easier. He's crazy, but he's the perfect amount of fun and seriousness. We get serious when we have to, but we're still having fun." The ultimate in fun — and seriousness — would be making the U.S. team for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, but the competition will be fierce. At the fast-approaching 2024 Paris Olympics, there will be five weight classes for women — 49 kilograms (108 pounds), 59 (130), 71 (156), 81 (178) and plus-81 — but each country is allowed to enter just three athletes. The weight classes for Los Angeles will be set in January. If they remain the same, Nicholson is likely to move up to 81 kilograms, where her combined total of 242 kilograms would rank first among U.S. women. Current Olympian Olivia Reeves, 21, who will compete in the 71-kilogram class in Paris, has a combined total of 268 kilograms (590.8 pounds), which is first overall among American women. "Anything can happen, but for now we're focusing on one meet at a time," said Vaughan, a 2010 Uniontown Lake graduate who played on Medina grad Tony Stockman's 2012-13 Ohio Christian University men's basketball team, which won a National Christian College Athletic Association national championship. "For us, 2028 will be there when it's time. That's our Super Bowl, but we can't get in a hurry. Ella's still just 18 years old and she's got four years to get better." When Nicholson started Olympic-style lifting in December 2022, her gains came quickly. Now that she's more experienced, those improvements come more slowly and in smaller increments. As important as it is to add strength, perfecting her technique might be even more crucial. The snatch entails lifting a barbell from the floor directly overhead as the athlete drops into a squat position, then standing up with the weight under control. The clean and jerk requires lifting a barbell from the floor to the upper chest as the athlete drops into a squat position, then standing up and hoisting the barbell overhead. Lifters usually move their feet in opposite directions as they push the weight overhead, but their feet must be brought back to parallel with the weight under control for a successful lift. "It's a grind now," Vaughan said. "It's a long time between meets to see if we've gotten better and where we need to improve. It's the strength training and technical stuff. That's where she will get 2 or 3 kilograms here, 2 or 3 kilograms there. "We've had some tough days along the way, but a lot of great ones. There's been some tears and some arguments, but we're two competitive people and we bring out the best in each other. Now it's a matter of getting out of that mindset of not only being USA good, but being world good." Nicholson, who has lifted 113 kilograms (249.1 pounds) in the snatch during practice, is confident in her ability to make the 2028 U.S. Olympic team, but she's not taking anything for granted. "I'd say there's a good chance because there's a bunch of people retiring and my numbers will go up as time goes on," Nicholson said. "Four years might seem like a long time, but I feel like it's going to be here before I know it." Contact Rick Noland at (330) 721-4046 or rnoland@medina-gazette.com. Follow him @RickNoland on X.