Page 52 - QARANC Spring 2024

52 The Gazette QARANC Association
‘Weightlifting is so empowering
– and a great stress reliever’
By day, Sian Peters is a mental health nurse working at 21 MMR and DCMH Leeming, but in her spare time this 5ft 3ins nurse is a European championship- winning weightlifter. This is her story, as told to Steve Bax.
When Sian Peters joined the British Army as a vehicle technician aged just 16 in 2005, her parents predicted it wouldn’t last. “I was quite a handful as a kid, and they said I would never be able to stand people telling me what to do,” says the now 34-year- old Sian, who grew up on her family farm in Llanelli.
She was determined to prove her family wrong and has continued to defy expectations throughout her life, most notably by taking up women’s competitive weightlifting and excelling at the sport. To date Sian has been the Welsh champion, Great Britain champion and European Champion – and she finished runner-up at the World Championships in Wieliczka, Poland, last summer.
Sian has always been sporty. She excelled at school in hockey and running before following her older brother into the Army, mainly to take advantage of the opportunities to play sport. On her parents’ farm they had quad bikes and other vehicles and Sian, and her four brothers, were all used to tinkering with them. She joined as a technician initially, planning to switch to nursing when the time was right, to follow in her mum’s footsteps.
Not being academic, Sian struggled at university in Birmingham, and a friend recommended that she try CrossFit classes at the gym as a way to de-stress. She reveals that, “I wasn’t very good at the CrossFit, but I was strong – as a farmer’s daughter I’d been
I wasn’t very good at the CrossFit,
but I was strong – as
a farmer’s daughter I’d been used to throwing hay bales around – and a coach at the gym suggested
I try
weightlifting
used to throwing hay bales around – and a coach at the gym suggested I try weightlifting.”
Sian “absolutely loved it” and even dropped the other sports she was doing so that she could focus on lifting. The Army was supportive and provided extra strength conditioning and physio, as well as a Talented Athlete Sponsorship Scheme (TASS) grant to help her progress with her new hobby.
Her training would involve 10 to 12 sessions a week of 2-3 hours. Being a nurse meant Sian would often split her gym time and do half the training before going on shift and the rest afterwards. She would taper this off as a competition approached and lose one or two kilos of weight with help from the nutritionist.