Gig Harbor weightlifter Benson takes 10th at national tournament

Sixteen-year-old Gig Harbor High School student Tatum Benson just started weightlifting competitively in the past year and a half. Now, she’s one of the best weight lifters in the country in her age group.

At USA Weightlifting Youth Nationals in June in Atlanta, Benson took 10th place in her weight class, out of 14 girls.

“I had no idea how it was going to go,” Benson said. “It was a really good experience. I want to keep making my next goals and moving forward.”

Benson began weight lifting as a supplement to swimming and water polo last year. She is one of about 20 teenagers who strength trains with Aaron Huston, a 38-year-old Purdy resident who is the head coach of the recently-formed Narrows Swim Club. He runs Team Highlander, a youth Olympic weightlifting club, out of a large garage on his property in Purdy, just past the Purdy Bridge.

In Olympic weightlifting, participants compete in two lifts, the snatch and the clean and jerk. Both movements start with the bar on the ground. The snatch is one movement, where the lifter pops the bar over their head. The clean and jerk is a two-part movement, where the lifter lifts the bar as high as possible, drops into a squat, then propels the bar upward over their shoulders.

Tatum lifted 57 kilos in the snatch — 3 short of her personal record. But she lifted 68 kilos in the clean and jerk, which was a 3-kilo improvement.

“I was excited,” Benson said. “I wasn’t too nervous, actually. I was pretty calm. I was just excited to be there.”

Her nervousness actually came before the day of the event, on the flight to Atlanta.

“I’m not a fan of flying,” Benson said. “I was more nervous about the flying than the weightlifting.”

Benson, who said Atlanta was very hot and humid during her time there last month, said she enjoyed meeting some of the different girls competing from around the country. She’s also trying to qualify for junior nationals in February in Spokane.

She’ll need to lift 152 kilos total. Right now, she’s at about 128, so she’ll have to work hard to get there.

“We’re kind of going back to the baseline, going to work on some of my weaknesses, build those up so I can get stronger,” Benson said.

Benson is a swimmer and water polo player for Gig Harbor High School and the Narrows Aquatic program. She will be part of the Narrows’ teams headed to Junior Olympics later this month to compete against some of the country’s best water polo teams.

“(I’ve got) lots of practices the rest of the summer,” Benson said. “Just training for water polo, weightlifting and swimming. Girls swim season starts in the fall so I’m just getting ready for that.”

This story was originally published July 21, 2017 at 12:12 PM with the headline "Gig Harbor weightlifter Benson takes 10th at national tournament."