Medina weightlifter Ella Nicholson getting worldwide attention

Ella Nicholson just turned 19 on July 7, but she's already won international weightlifting medals in Albania, Mexico, Colombia, Spain, Cuba and Peru. In the next few months, the 2025 Medina High graduate hopes to add Paraguay and Norway to her list, but the ultimate goal remains to compete — and medal, because the 5-foot-6, 167-pounder hates to lose — at the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. Right now, though, Nicholson is staying in the present. "I don't really have any expectations yet because it's so far away," she said. "Right now, we don't know the qualification procedures or even what the weight classes are going to be, so we just keep training." So far, that training has worked extremely well. In six international competitions in the snatch, clean and jerk and combined total, Nicholson has never failed to medal, earning gold 11 times, silver on five occasions and bronze twice at the youth and junior levels. Along the way she has set six American records in her weight class, won three youth or junior national championships and recorded personal-best lifts of 113 kilograms (249 pounds) in the snatch, 131 (289) in the clean and jerk and 244 (538) in combined total. Next up for Nicholson are the 2025 Pan American Junior Championships, to be held in Paraguay in August. With weight classes having been redrawn, Nicholson will compete at 77 kilograms (170 pounds), where she will also vie for medals at the International Weightlifting Federation Senior World Championships in Norway in October. It will be her debut at the senior level, which is the highest in weightlifting. Between those events, Nicholson will begin attending Lindenwood University in Missouri, where she will study business marketing and join the weightlifting team, which won the 2025 National University Championships in the men's and coed divisions while tying for second in the women's division. Based in St. Charles, Lindenwood and coach Trenton Crain recruited Nicholson for two years, but deciding to accept a full scholarship was not an easy decision for the Medina resident. Some close to Nicholson didn't want her to go away to college, preferring she stay close to home and continue to train locally. Many others offered well-meaning advice, but Nicholson eventually concluded there was no way she could make everyone happy, so she had to do what she thought was best for her. That's why she chose to attend Lindenwood, where her boyfriend, a Florida native, will be a sophomore on the weightlifting team, though she said she would have made the same decision had he not attended the school. "Everyone wants to tell me their opinion and everyone wants me to do what they want," she said. "And everyone's opinion is different. In the end, I had to ignore what everyone was telling me because there was no way I was going to do what I wanted if I tried to listen to all the others. "After I visited (Lindenwood), I was more informed about what it would be like and campus life as a weightlifter. At the end of the day, it was a decision of having a team to train with and an environment to train in." After a hectic period that included high school graduation and all the festivities that came with it, Nicholson is back training with coach Trey Vaughan at Root 18 CrossFit. Vaughan, who has been Nicholson's coach since she started in the sport in 2022, will continue to design her programs and has a great relationship with Lindenwood's Crain, with whom he attended several international competitions. "There's been a ton of stuff going on with her graduating from high school and she wanted to be with her friends, so we took the foot off the gas a little bit," Vaughan said. "I was sensing she was a little burned out and you only have a senior year once, so she was at a point where she was coasting a little bit. But she knows she's going to make the progress she needs to make. "She's a real human. She's not just a robot that only does weightlifting. She is still a kid growing up and trying to find her way a little bit. We all think, 'You're an incredible athlete,' but she's only 19 years old. She's comfortable trying to find that balance, maybe even struggling with it a little bit. That's important, but at the same time she still wants to be great." A personable young woman who is very comfortable interacting with adults, having been around them a lot while training at Root 18 CrossFit, Nicholson laughed when asked if she and Vaughan have had a few disagreements. "A few?" she said. "That's an understatement." At the same time, Nicholson knows how much the 33-year-old Vaughan has helped her and is happy he and Crain have a great relationship. "We're figuring out you can't only do weightlifting all the time, but I'm a whole new weightlifter now," she said. "In the beginning my technique was a CrossFitter technique: Just get the weight up there. Now the weights are heavier, so you have to focus." Nicholson's tremendous success in the sport has led to her getting a stipend from USA Weightlifting, which has lessened the financial burden of entering meets but also created a bit of pressure because she has to meet certain requirements to maintain it. "That's a lot of pressure on a young kid and she's trying to find her way through all of it, but we've got a really good community here," Vaughan said. "That's what I'm here for; that's why her parents (Jeannine and Cliff) are here. "Ella and I have a lot of heart to hearts. We have to have uncomfortable talks from time to time. That's the great thing about our relationship. We're able to do that and it doesn't fracture our friendship, but I still have to be the coach and she has to be the athlete. That part has really grown in this last year." Asked how she could best get everything she wants out of weightlifting, including an Olympic berth and maybe even a medal, yet have as close to a normal college experience as possible, Nicholson thought for a moment. "I'll forever be figuring that out," she said. "I don't think there's one specific answer to that. There's just choices I have to make on a day-to-day basis. "When I started I was just doing this because it was fun," she added. "I kind of lost that when I got my stipend, but now it's starting to come back. But I know it's not just going to be handed to me. It's not that I necessarily need the stipend, but it's nice to have. It's pressure, but it's more that I want to keep it. "But I also want to keep this a sport that I do because I like to do it." Contact Rick Noland at (330) 721-4046 or rnoland@medina-gazette.com. Follow him @RickNoland on X.