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Athlete Journal: Holley Mangold, Entry 8 – Life at the OTC

Holley continues to scurry between Columbus, the Olympic Training Center, fundraisers, and work, but stopped for a moment to marvel at meeting Michael Phelps.

holley mangold, olympics, london olympics, 2012 olympics, weightlifting

Written by Last updated on Oct 20, 2021

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 8:

Another exhausting week! I keep trying to have relaxing weekends and it never seems to work out that way. This past weekend we had a fundraiser Friday night at CrossFit OKM, then immediately following we drove to North Carolina to teach a USAW Level 1 Certification course. I’m not very good at being crammed in a car for hours on end, but I survived and had a lot of fun as soon as we got there.

We rented out a beautiful southern home for the weekend. It had an awesome wrap-around porch that was fun to hang out on. The NC group was really fun. The event was hosted by CrossFit Vitality, but it had a mix of CrossFit and strength and conditioning coaches. Here’s a video on YouTube that gives a better taste of what we do at CrossFit courses:

CrossFit for Holley @ CrossFit OKM

After our trip to North Carolina, I had to make a quick turn around to travel to the Olympic Training Center (OTC). The altitude and the time difference always messes with me for the first few days. I love being out in Colorado, though. As I’ve said before, it feels so great to be in such a prestigious facility and just hanging out with all of my old friends. It’s an athlete’s dream place. Its hard work and I don’t get to wind down with my roomies playing Mario Cart, but it’s all worth it. They work me so hard, but I also get the luxury of recovery rooms and cold tubs that I don’t really have access to in Columbus. The prepared meals at the OTC are another wonderful perk to being there!

So far, one of the most notable things that has happened while training is running into Michael Phelps in the cafeteria. One of the most bizarre things about seeing him is knowing that he and I are on an Olympic team together competing for the USA. I think that we’re all in the same boat out there. Working our butts off trying to make our country proud.

In all honesty I’m wiped out from training two-a-days and really can’t think well being so tired. I’ll try to have a better, more detailed account of what I’m up to in Colorado when I return to Columbus and can focus on my thoughts. We’re pretty much just machines out here without time to think!

holley mangold, olympics, london olympics, 2012 olympics, weightlifting

About Holley Mangold

Ohio native Holley Mangold is no stranger to elite competition. The daughter of an accomplished swimmer, Holley made her own name for herself when she became the first girl ever to start in an Ohio High School State Championship football game (as an offensive lineman no less). And if you know anything about high school football in Ohio, you know the significance of that achievement.

Though Holley loved her twelve years on the football field, her athletic career came to a crossroads upon high school graduation. Faced with bleak prospects of being competitive on a college football team as a woman, Holley turned to throwing shot and discus at Ursuline College in Cleveland. Holley had prior experience in powerlifting—with the legendary Larry Pacifico—during high school, but started to look for a strength sport that could specifically help in her throwing career. She quickly found weightlifting—with Coach Dan Bell—and she continued to lift in college.

Over the next two years, Holley continued to improve in the quick lifts, the snatch and the clean and jerk. After strong performances in both the 2008 and 2009 Junior World Championships, Holley won gold in the 2009 American Open and earned one of only 7 spots on the 2010 Pan American Team.

Holley’s steady improvement eventually earned her an invitation to the US Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs to train with National Team Coach Zygmunt Smalcerz and an MTV reality show:True Life: I’m the Big Girl.After failing to improve at the OTC, however, and suffering a knee injury in the process, Holley left Colorado to have surgery and to train with Coach Mark Cannella in Columbus, Ohio.

Cannella, widely considered to be one of the best technicians in the country, went to work on Holley, and eleven weeks later, she set lifetime personal records at the 2011 Arnold Weightlifting Championships and has set a personal record in every national and international competition she has competed in since.

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