EDITOR’S NOTE:
Welcome to the Athlete Journal of Olympic weightlifter Holley Mangold. Holley is part of Team USA headed to London this summer. Follow her journey here as she trains for the 2012 Olympics! Holley’s journal will be posted every Friday.
You can catch up by reading her previous journal entries!
Holley’s Athlete Journal 12:
Between meet and greets in my hometown to CrossFit games in California, this past week can only be topped by London. It was amazing all around. I appreciate my dad for setting up opportunities to see people before venturing across the pond. I was at Elsa’s Kettering and Dublin Pub in Dayton and absolutely loved the amount of people who came out to support me. It really meant a lot to see old friends and meet new supporters. After the Dublin Pub we had an awesome time at our neighborhood pool, Dunsinane. Its so much fun to revisit my childish side every once in awhile.
Over the weekend, I met a ton of awesome people at the CrossFit Games. It was probably one of the coolest sporting events to attend. There was a huge crowd and lots of strong competitors. I think it’s awesome to see how much CrossFit has grown. They use Olympic weightlifting in their workouts (for those of you not familiar with CrossFit), which is exciting from my point of view because it adds popularity to my favorite sport. I was able to hang with people from Rock Tape, which was very cool. I wish I would have know about Rock Tape when I first started working out to help with my aches and pains.
Getting ready for the Olympics has had its ups and downs. Training has been going well and I am feeling confident in my lifts, whereas packing and household issues have been putting some stress on me. My roommates found a new house for us to move into, which is great, but they are moving while I’m in London. While I don’t really have a whole 
lot in my laundry room to pack, I do have to worry about moving the big things, like my “Big Girl Bed.” I’m hoping I can have things all sorted out before leaving next week. I absolutely can’t believe that this time next week I’ll be in the United Kingdom. It’s funny how with all of the training and talk about the Olympics I feel like I’ve been waiting to show what I can do for so long, yet on the other hand, because of being busy, the days have really crept up! I am so excited to report on the whole experience!
This week’s highlighted athlete is Natalie Burgener. She is in the 63kg weight class (about 140 lbs). She was a 2008 Olympian and a strong competitor at the Olympic Trials this year. She has accolades such as Junior Championship Team, Worlds, and Pan American team, just to name a few. Natalie is such a strong woman both physically and mentally. Her determination in training after injury is what makes this sport great. Here is a picture of us after the Olympic Trials in March.
