Latest / Unbalanced with Cerys Davage / 82. Power beyond limits (ft. Olivia Broome)

Transcript

82. Power beyond limits (ft. Olivia Broome) · Unbalanced with Cerys Davage

• 0:09
  Hello everyone, Welcome back or welcome to another episode of
• 0:13
  Unbalanced with me, Kerry Savage.
• 0:16
  Today I'm joined by Olivia Broome.
• 0:18
  Hello. Hi, how are you?
• 0:21
  I'm good. It's a lovely morning.
• 0:22
  I've got my coffee, I'm ready to go.
• 0:24
  Have you got a brew with you? Yeah, I've got, I've got, I've
• 0:27
  got my, my coffee as well. Perfect.
• 0:31
  We're ready to go. I'm so, so excited to have you
• 0:35
  on the podcast. You are what looks like an
• 0:38
  incredible woman and smashing it in the disability sports world.
• 0:44
  So I'm very excited to dive into that with you today.
• 0:46
  But first, give us a bit of an intro about yourself.
• 0:49
  Where are you from and what do you do?
• 0:51
  Yeah, so like I said, I'm Olivia Broome.
• 0:54
  I'm AGB power power lifter who's been to to Paralympic Games.
• 1:02
  And yeah, I'm, I'm from, I'm from Trolley.
• 1:05
  Lovely. So.
• 1:06
  Up north, Yeah. Northern Girl.
• 1:11
  Love it. You're a GB power lifter.
• 1:15
  How did you get into that? That's not something like we get
• 1:19
  taught in schools, I don't think.
• 1:20
  No, no, it's, it's not Originally I, I, I was, I was a
• 1:25
  swimmer growing up and always like, I'd always wanted to go to
• 1:30
  a Paralympics after seeing like London 2012.
• 1:35
  I think that was where it really sort of, I fell in love with,
• 1:39
  you know, sport and, and, and being athletic.
• 1:43
  And I was doing swimming at the time and it wasn't until my
• 1:46
  older sister did some volunteer work with UK Sport and then
• 1:53
  discover your gold talent ID pathways.
• 1:57
  So like back then, it used to be, you know, UK sport would
• 2:00
  reach out to, to athletes or potential athletes and you'd go
• 2:06
  and to like their tryout days. And she, she came home one day
• 2:11
  and he was like, why don't we put live up for this?
• 2:13
  And so see where that takes her. And so we filled in all the
• 2:18
  information and they, they came back and they were like kind of
• 2:21
  said, you're sort of best suited to either powerlifting, to power
• 2:27
  powerlifting or to table tennis. And I, I can't play a table
• 2:31
  tennis. I'm terrible at it.
• 2:33
  But power powerlifting was one of those where I, I hadn't heard
• 2:38
  of it. And it was very interesting and
• 2:42
  sort of as I did a bit of research on it, then saw what
• 2:46
  it, what it entailed. And so we went to the gym a
• 2:51
  little while before going down to their tryout day to sort of,
• 2:54
  you know, have a go and just see.
• 2:56
  And I was like, oh, I think this would be good.
• 2:59
  And then we went to their tryout day down in, in Loughborough at
• 3:01
  the university. And I just fell in love with it
• 3:05
  that that day really. And yeah, it kind of took up,
• 3:09
  took off from there. That sounds pretty cool.
• 3:11
  And Loughborough is kind of known for its sportiness and
• 3:15
  it's, you know, way of getting people into, you know, the big
• 3:19
  competitions. And where did it kind of stand
• 3:23
  from there? So it's in 2016 that I found the
• 3:26
  sports. I would have been 15 years old,
• 3:29
  maybe just just about to be 16. Yeah, so young.
• 3:33
  Yeah, that's crazy. And you're my age, right?
• 3:35
  You're 24. Yeah, 24.
• 3:38
  Wow. But from such a young age, like
• 3:40
  that's absolutely incredible. And I'm sure we'll get into your
• 3:43
  winnings and your successes. But first of all, tell us a bit
• 3:47
  about your disability and growing up with it.
• 3:49
  Yeah, so I've got a chondroplasia, which is the
• 3:55
  short limbed dwarfism. I'm the only one in my family
• 3:59
  with it because just the just the way that the genetics work
• 4:04
  with it in most cases, but I'm not going to get too sciency on
• 4:08
  it on here. Growing up with it, it was
• 4:12
  strange because I never really sort of felt out of place,
• 4:16
  especially amongst sort of my like peers, you know, in school
• 4:20
  and in in my family. But it used to be sort of going
• 4:24
  out into public was probably a little bit of the harder one,
• 4:30
  just because I'm from a small village and like that, obviously
• 4:34
  there's not many cases of dwarfism sort of around me in
• 4:38
  such a, in such a small village. Like you'd maybe get a couple,
• 4:41
  you know, a couple of the older people.
• 4:45
  And I think in high school, there was probably only three of
• 4:48
  us that had that had dwarfism. So that was probably the more
• 4:51
  difficult side of it. But my parents growing up, they
• 4:56
  they never sort of held me back from anything.
• 4:59
  If I wanted to try it, It was very much a sort of try and
• 5:02
  you'll, you know, figure out, you know, if you can do it or if
• 5:07
  you can't. You know, they weren't, they
• 5:08
  weren't, I wasn't coddled growing up.
• 5:10
  But I think that that's also part like I was the, I was the
• 5:14
  4th kid at that at that point. You know, they, they'd they'd
• 5:17
  done it all all before. But yeah, so like growing up,
• 5:21
  you know, it had its, you know, it had its perks, but you know,
• 5:25
  it wasn't, it wasn't the easiest, I'd say.
• 5:28
  OK. And maybe that's a good thing
• 5:30
  that you didn't come first and your parents didn't, you know,
• 5:35
  kind of cradle you in that way. You know, they kind of just let
• 5:38
  you go and, you know, make the same mistakes that any, any
• 5:43
  person would make because we're all human.
• 5:46
  But yeah, it's, it's always difficult to navigate your own
• 5:50
  disability, especially in my experience, without any
• 5:54
  representation around you. And because I wasn't really
• 5:57
  seeing anything online either, I really didn't have anyone to
• 6:01
  compare myself to and to know, you know, whether this is normal
• 6:06
  or whether it was just me or was I just a bit of a freak.
• 6:10
  Yeah. And I think, yeah, yeah, like
• 6:12
  you said, I think in a place obviously where I'm from, no one
• 6:16
  really sort of stands out, you know, that it's, you know, and
• 6:21
  to be that person that does stand out, it's, it's quite,
• 6:25
  it's quite daunting at times. And, and yeah.
• 6:28
  And, and growing up, obviously, you know, I was born what, 2,
• 6:32
  2002, 1001. And so there wasn't really a lot
• 6:35
  of, you know, positive representation growing up.
• 6:38
  I mean, anything that was in, you know, films or TV shows, it
• 6:43
  was all a bit, you know, jokey and, you know, more for like
• 6:46
  satire. Like you, like I grew up with
• 6:48
  shows like, you know, like Jackass, for example, and, and
• 6:53
  stuff like that is where it where a lot of it, you know, it
• 6:57
  was sort of made fun of a lot of the times.
• 7:00
  And I was that old obviously changed in sort of 2012 when
• 7:04
  obviously we had the, the Paralympics and there was that
• 7:07
  sort of more, you know, there was more eyes on, on disability.
• 7:11
  And I think obviously now since then, perceptions have have
• 7:16
  changed you, you still get a few, you know, a few of the, of
• 7:21
  the younger kids sort of still in that sort of old, older
• 7:24
  mindset. But I think now, now that I'm
• 7:27
  older, I can, I can tend to shut that out a lot, a lot better
• 7:30
  than I probably did when I was younger.
• 7:32
  I definitely agree that, you know, the representation wasn't
• 7:35
  like a +1 and also anything we saw on, you know, you know, any
• 7:42
  characters with with a disability, that was who they
• 7:44
  were, that was their personality.
• 7:46
  They weren't a disabled person that had their own career or
• 7:49
  anything else. They were just a disabled
• 7:52
  person. So it wasn't a very positive
• 7:56
  light and showing that, you know, we can go out there and
• 7:59
  still have jobs or be parents or just be normal parts of society
• 8:04
  regardless of our disability like that was all there was.
• 8:07
  So and. Yeah, like you like apparently I
• 8:12
  was like, obviously I was, you know, I was a baby, so I don't
• 8:14
  remember. I obviously don't remember this,
• 8:15
  but when my parents called, I think my, my grandma that I had
• 8:19
  dwarfism, it was that sort of like, oh, will she be OK?
• 8:23
  And mum's like, she's fine. Like she's, you know, she'll be
• 8:27
  good. And, and it was like grow like
• 8:30
  sort of back then, it was sort of like if you ever said that
• 8:33
  you had disability, like no matter your age, it was very
• 8:35
  much, people tended to focus a lot more on that.
• 8:39
  And they obviously tried to be a bit more like sympathetic.
• 8:42
  And you just be like, no, like they're having a great time.
• 8:44
  Like, they've got, you know, they've got like family, they've
• 8:47
  got an amazing job, like. But a lot of people tended to
• 8:51
  focus on just that disability. Yeah.
• 8:54
  And I don't want that to be, I don't want that to be the focus,
• 8:58
  you know, I want that to just be like a tiny part of me that, you
• 9:02
  know, it is something to look out for.
• 9:04
  I don't want you to ignore it because, you know, that's a
• 9:06
  whole problem in itself. But just to acknowledge it and
• 9:09
  not see me just for that, you know, see me for my hobbies and
• 9:14
  everything else and my contribution to society.
• 9:16
  And, you know, just, I'm just like you, you know, but our
• 9:20
  bodies just work a little bit differently.
• 9:23
  Yeah, exactly that. Exactly that.
• 9:25
  Like, yeah, just yeah, don't put too much emphasis on it.
• 9:28
  Like look at the other things that I've done and do.
• 9:31
  But yeah, still keep still keep your mind.
• 9:34
  Yeah, for sure. Every journey is so unique with
• 9:37
  a disability, especially with lack of representation.
• 9:40
  I'm very fortunate that bus there wasn't in, you know, a
• 9:44
  great amount of representation in high school.
• 9:47
  You know, there were two, there were two students in the years
• 9:51
  of me that had that had dwarfism.
• 9:54
  And so the school, the school that I went to kind of, you
• 9:58
  know, they obviously knew about it.
• 10:00
  They knew what I might need. And so whenever, you know, if
• 10:05
  there was a problem, like say, for example, I couldn't reach
• 10:10
  like the whiteboard or something, they'd always put in,
• 10:13
  you know, steps to, to ensure that, that it just made life a
• 10:17
  little bit easier. And even like in, in primary
• 10:20
  school, like, you know, the teachers help, but also like the
• 10:23
  rest of the class would like helpful.
• 10:26
  Like I had to have remember this, like I had to have this
• 10:28
  like ergonomic chair, like growing up in school and, and at
• 10:32
  home. And like, obviously having to
• 10:35
  try and move that around. Like they're, they're not the
• 10:37
  easy, they weren't the easiest thing to move around, but like
• 10:41
  friends and just like other students would always just be
• 10:44
  like, no, I'll, I'll move it for you.
• 10:45
  I'll make it easy for you just to give you a hand.
• 10:49
  And that that was, that was all that was always like nice.
• 10:52
  But yeah, I think I think a lot of like the issues were, you
• 10:55
  know, people just like making jokes, especially sort of, you
• 11:00
  know, that like sort of teenage, you know, that teenage year
• 11:03
  younger than like 15, I want to say, you know, try and make
• 11:06
  jokes or, you know, maybe called the names.
• 11:08
  And I think that was the hard that was sort of the hard point
• 11:11
  because I already stood out. I didn't need, you know, more
• 11:15
  attention on it. And I think grow, I think
• 11:18
  growing up, especially in sort of those like they sort of
• 11:21
  formative years, you know, especially and like sort of it's
• 11:26
  me going through beauty. You're you're way more sort of
• 11:29
  self-conscious. I think that that's what made it
• 11:32
  hard because you know, you catch, you're on a bad day, you
• 11:35
  kind of like, I don't want to go out in public now, because if
• 11:39
  that's all that people see and just point out, then I don't, I
• 11:43
  don't want to, to do that. I just want to be at home.
• 11:46
  It's so nice to hear that, you know, you did have people around
• 11:49
  you that just helped you without you having to, you know, go out
• 11:53
  of your way and feel uncomfortable asking and things
• 11:55
  because it is very uncomfortable at first, especially advocating
• 12:00
  for yourself and not only knowing what you need and what
• 12:04
  adaptations you need, but asking for it.
• 12:06
  It's it can be really, really difficult.
• 12:08
  So knowing that you had people around you in school that just
• 12:11
  knew, you know, friends that truly just wanted to help you
• 12:15
  and just carry on. And that's really nice to hear.
• 12:18
  But the comments, I'm not surprised because, you know,
• 12:21
  especially Britain, I just feel like, you know, the public can
• 12:24
  just be horrible sometimes. But I guess you want to come out
• 12:30
  of that stronger. You want to prove a point that,
• 12:33
  you know, this isn't just who I am.
• 12:35
  I'm much more than that. Yeah, definitely.
• 12:39
  And like obviously again, like obviously now that I'm older, I
• 12:42
  can, you know, I can, I can tolerate it a bit more,
• 12:45
  especially like obviously around, around us.
• 12:48
  It's a lot of it's to do with like obviously younger kids,
• 12:51
  like you're looking at like 5 year olds.
• 12:52
  And I had it recent. I had it recently where I was, I
• 12:55
  was actually in the shop, in the local shop by us, just like
• 12:59
  picking some stuff up. And there was a, there was a dad
• 13:02
  with his, with his two kids and they, I think the, the youngest
• 13:07
  one, probably 5, I think he said that he was 5.
• 13:11
  And obviously the kid sees me and he's trying to get his dad's
• 13:14
  attention being like, dad, look at the look at the girl behind
• 13:17
  you sort of thing. And he stares like, let's, let's
• 13:19
  not, let's not stare. You know, it's, it's rude.
• 13:22
  And his dad turns to be like, I'm really sorry.
• 13:24
  He's only 5. And, and I said, no, it's, it's
• 13:27
  fine because I, I'm a little bit more forgiving when it's, you
• 13:30
  know, really young children because it is that sort of like
• 13:33
  they've never seen this before. And they're, you know, they're
• 13:37
  not quite sure like what to do. And you know, for then it's
• 13:40
  different when they see someone like me who's an adult but
• 13:46
  short, you know, so I'm a little bit more forgiving with that.
• 13:49
  But when it's the older kids, then I'm a bit like you.
• 13:52
  Like, is that like helpful for you?
• 13:55
  Like what do you get out of that?
• 13:57
  Yeah. It's also like, you know,
• 13:59
  there's a lot of ignorance there, but I'm like, you know,
• 14:02
  are your parents not, like, teaching you that you shouldn't
• 14:04
  stay? Do you just not know that?
• 14:07
  Like, you know, if you were in my position, like, would you
• 14:11
  appreciate someone staring at you?
• 14:13
  Maybe not. Yeah.
• 14:15
  Like would you, would you like to if people stared and pointed
• 14:18
  at you in public? Probably not.
• 14:20
  Yeah, but no, you're writing, I think in that, you know, I think
• 14:23
  it's a lot of the British public, I think because whenever
• 14:27
  I've gone abroad like with family and and that I've, I've
• 14:32
  never run into a lot of the, the issues that I get here, which
• 14:36
  is, which is, which is surprising actually.
• 14:40
  Yeah, it's interesting. Let's move on to, you know, back
• 14:45
  to your sports journey and your powerlifting.
• 14:48
  Obviously, you've been very successful over the past few
• 14:51
  years in the Commonwealth Games and the Paralympics and things
• 14:55
  like that. So what was your first
• 14:57
  competition and what was that like competing?
• 15:00
  My first ever competition with powerlifting was the the world
• 15:05
  champs in 2017. So that was like my first
• 15:09
  majors, first international. And it was quite daunting
• 15:14
  actually, because you know, at that time what I was 16, I
• 15:19
  think. And I'm going, I'm flying out,
• 15:22
  you know, with with just the team, you know, and you're
• 15:26
  surrounded by sort of, you know, these sort of the great, like
• 15:31
  the big names in in your sport. And you know, you go, you're
• 15:36
  performing on top of the world, you know, a world stage.
• 15:39
  It's quite scary at that at that age.
• 15:42
  And I just, I just remember being so nervous.
• 15:46
  And obviously that's that competition, that competition be
• 15:48
  my first is it's quite special because this is what a
• 15:51
  competition's like. This is how big all the classes
• 15:54
  are. This is what we need to do
• 15:55
  something. And but I, I just remember sort
• 15:59
  of like morning of calm being so like so nervous that like I
• 16:05
  didn't want to eat and my coach is there like no, like eat live,
• 16:08
  need to eat and like, but I don't want to at the same time.
• 16:13
  It was my first comp. We weren't expecting, you know,
• 16:16
  a medal at that. It was more just for the
• 16:18
  experience. I still remember it being like
• 16:21
  so fun just going out on that, on that stage and just and just
• 16:25
  just having a good time. Wow, that's so cool.
• 16:29
  I'm not a sporty person in the least and just like hearing
• 16:34
  about this is like a whole new experience for me.
• 16:36
  So thank you for kind of walking us through that.
• 16:39
  I've seen that you have since been a two time Paralympic
• 16:44
  medalist, which is absolutely insane.
• 16:48
  Can you tell us a bit about your experience there?
• 16:51
  Was that was that different from, you know, the competitions
• 16:54
  you've done previously? Oh yeah, massively, I think
• 16:58
  Tokyo obviously being my, my first part of it.
• 17:01
  That was a that was a weird one because obviously he's doing
• 17:04
  COVID and so it wasn't run like a like a normal games and the
• 17:09
  experience from Tokyo to Paris was very different and I'll, and
• 17:13
  I'll get into that. But even then, I, I like it was
• 17:16
  so different from what I, you know, from what I had
• 17:19
  experienced, because not only, you know, not only is it, you
• 17:22
  know, the global stage, but you know, you're surrounded with
• 17:27
  different athletes, you're in a completely, you know, you're in
• 17:30
  a very sort of high pressure environment.
• 17:33
  I felt like then I had back in 2017, I was so like very nervous
• 17:40
  and again, like still had those like same nervous feelings that
• 17:44
  I, that I'd get, you know, back back at my first comp.
• 17:48
  And I remember on comp day, just sort of head down, headphones
• 17:52
  on. And before, before Tokyo, we, we
• 17:56
  didn't think that I'd know that I'd meddled, but it was very
• 17:58
  much like just going through the experience of the games.
• 18:01
  I was like, I was happy with that.
• 18:03
  And then obviously the games got delayed a year.
• 18:07
  And you know, me obviously, you know, being younger, you know,
• 18:11
  just stuck to training, got my head down and got stronger
• 18:15
  throughout COVID and decided to be able to sort of almost be in
• 18:21
  those in the fight for those medals, like EUR, World Cups,
• 18:26
  World Champs that we were going into, into Tokyo then.
• 18:30
  And sort of and like, no, we could, we could challenge for a
• 18:34
  medal here and Oh yeah, we could, we could.
• 18:39
  But like, it's not guaranteed. Like I'm not, you know, I'm not
• 18:42
  going to be, you know, I'm not going to say that I'm going to
• 18:44
  get a medal and then got a medal.
• 18:47
  And I just, I just remember, you know, just being like, Oh my
• 18:50
  God, I've medaled at my first ever Paralympics and like, I
• 18:55
  was, yeah, I was, I think I was over the moon for Tokyo.
• 18:59
  And then of course, you're going into Paris very different games
• 19:03
  again, just because obviously we weren't in lockdown in Paris.
• 19:07
  So I was able to sort of go out, explore the village a bit more
• 19:11
  and you got sort of used to like seeing everyone and like we, we
• 19:16
  actually had a crowd at those games, which power crowd listen,
• 19:20
  never normally gets a crowd because it's, it's one of those
• 19:23
  smaller sports that no one really knows about unless
• 19:28
  obviously you know someone in there.
• 19:30
  And I remember walking out for the athlete presentation in
• 19:34
  Paris and just hearing all these cheers.
• 19:37
  And I was like, oh, there's, there's a lot of people here
• 19:40
  like, wow. And I remember going like coming
• 19:43
  out for my lift and there were, there were loads of like school
• 19:46
  kids there. And I remember coming out
• 19:50
  chalking my hands up and these kids were like leaning over the
• 19:54
  barriers, just shouting to get my attention and to just like,
• 19:59
  cheer and. Hearing, hearing the chairs like
• 20:04
  coming up from my, my fight from my final lift having got it.
• 20:08
  Oh, it's, it's incredible. And I think Paris is extra
• 20:12
  special as well because obviously my my family were
• 20:15
  there and it and it just made it, you know, really sweet that
• 20:21
  they got to see that. They got to see it on sort of
• 20:23
  the, the biggest stage that we get to compete on.
• 20:27
  And I have, you know, having everyone, everyone there was,
• 20:30
  yeah, it was extra special. Wow, that sounds unreal.
• 20:35
  Like, that sounds like such a cool experience and something
• 20:39
  that you'll carry with you forever, right?
• 20:42
  Yeah, definitely. Like, I don't think I'll ever
• 20:46
  forget either of those games. And cool that you've got to
• 20:50
  experience like both versions of the Paralympics, which is quite
• 20:54
  rare maybe looking back. But I'm seeing like the contrast
• 20:59
  between, you know, people maybe calling you names when you grew
• 21:03
  up and chatting at you and making fun of you to these
• 21:08
  people calling your name to cheer you on at the Paralympics.
• 21:12
  Like those two kind of contrasts, just like maybe a
• 21:17
  reflection of how far you've come and how proud you must be
• 21:21
  of representing your. Community yeah, that definitely.
• 21:25
  I mean, it was it's it's really funny because like just walking
• 21:29
  around, especially in the in the few weeks after Paris and I
• 21:34
  think I was walking up to a friend's and this woman was with
• 21:39
  a dog and she'd pull in the dog of it and she was like, oh, are
• 21:42
  you even Olivia Brew? I was like, yeah.
• 21:45
  And like that I was I was very much like, how did how how do
• 21:50
  you know me? And then they were like, Oh
• 21:51
  well, like well done for the Paralympics that you don't
• 21:54
  you've done as proud of that. Oh yeah, you'll have seen that.
• 21:59
  And it like I was like, oh, like people.
• 22:01
  Have actually like. Watched me and like I started
• 22:04
  like they know like they know this now.
• 22:08
  But like, yeah, go like even going into like the shop into
• 22:11
  the local like Co-op for us. Like even the people who work
• 22:15
  there would just be like, oh, congratulations.
• 22:16
  But like by the way, like so proud.
• 22:18
  I'm like Oh my God. But at the same time I'm I'm
• 22:21
  also like, Oh my God, like people that like now know who I
• 22:24
  am. That's scary, being able to
• 22:27
  represent, you know, my little, my, my small village here, like
• 22:31
  it's, you know, it's a really good feeling.
• 22:34
  And so, so deserved, you know, like all that hard work and you
• 22:39
  not only got a medal in your first Paralympic Games, but now
• 22:42
  you're like being recognised on the streets.
• 22:44
  And that's just so, so cool. And I hope you are proud of
• 22:49
  yourself because I think it's sometimes tough to give
• 22:51
  ourselves credit but and sounds like such an incredible journey.
• 22:55
  Are there any misconceptions about having a disability in the
• 23:00
  sports industry that you think people should know?
• 23:03
  I think it kind of sort of, you know, goes back to what we were
• 23:06
  saying before with that, you know, if you say that you've got
• 23:09
  a disability, people tend to look at it quite like
• 23:12
  sympathetically. They they still put a focus on
• 23:17
  it. Like she's like, oh, like she's
• 23:18
  got, but for me, you know, she's got a chondroplasia, but she's
• 23:21
  lifted and she's lifted double her body weight.
• 23:24
  And I'm like, the fact that I have achondroplasia isn't part
• 23:28
  of like lifting double body weight.
• 23:30
  I, I did that because I've, I've worked hard for that.
• 23:35
  And I think there's also, there is also that misconception that
• 23:38
  disability limits you, limits what you can do.
• 23:43
  And well, in some cases, you know that that's true.
• 23:46
  You know, there's, there are certain, there are obviously
• 23:49
  certain disabilities that maybe can't do, you know, certain
• 23:52
  sports or certain activities just because of, you know, a
• 23:54
  safety aspect. There are things that, you know,
• 23:57
  that we that we can do and that we're still, you know, we're
• 24:01
  still greater. Yeah exactly, and even if that
• 24:05
  means adapting a certain way, or maybe it's not the way exactly
• 24:10
  you imagined it, but you have to just keep following your dreams
• 24:14
  like you said. Bit cringe but so true.
• 24:17
  Yeah, yeah, like, yeah, exactly. And I think that's the that's
• 24:21
  sort of the beautiful thing with sport is especially para sport,
• 24:25
  is that it's all, you know, it's adapted to, you know, people's
• 24:30
  needs. So like in powerlifting,
• 24:33
  obviously it's it's a lot of, you know, a lot of short
• 24:35
  stature, but sort of lower limb amputees, wheelchair athletes.
• 24:40
  And so like in that sport, we just do the bench press where
• 24:43
  it's obviously non powerlifting, you have the squat and the
• 24:45
  deadlift, but they cater it to, you know, to that disability.
• 24:50
  And I, and I think that is, that is sort of the, the beautiful
• 24:53
  thing with sport is that you know, it's, it's, you can, you
• 24:57
  can adapt it to, to suit your needs.
• 25:00
  Yeah, exactly. OK, Well, that's very cool to
• 25:04
  know and crazy that you're only 24 and you've done so, so much.
• 25:10
  I know you've also done the Commonwealth Games and tell us
• 25:14
  about that. Yeah, so that, that was another
• 25:17
  exciting, another exciting one. Birmingham in 22.
• 25:23
  Yeah. Because again, it's it's it's
• 25:25
  another opportunity to, you know, sort of represent your
• 25:28
  country, your, you know, the, the, you know, the town that
• 25:31
  you're from. And again, another really
• 25:34
  special, special one because my, my parents and, and my sisters
• 25:39
  were able to come out and watch. And yeah, like, again, like
• 25:44
  first Commonwealth Games, that's just a special to medal at Tokyo
• 25:49
  in 21 and then to medal again at another big games like the
• 25:54
  Commonwealth Games sort of a year later.
• 25:59
  And to sort of show that progression, you know, I'm, I'm
• 26:02
  getting stronger, you know, and I've still got, you know, years
• 26:07
  to go. That's, that's, you know,
• 26:08
  that's, I think that's the exciting part.
• 26:12
  And obviously with, with, with Glasgow coming up this year,
• 26:15
  there's a lot more, you know, eyes on the sport now.
• 26:19
  I think it's, it's another opportunity to sort of to sort
• 26:23
  of showcase what, what you can do really.
• 26:27
  Very cool. What would you say is like your
• 26:31
  biggest inspiration when you go out to these games, when you
• 26:35
  train through this whole journey?
• 26:39
  I think I think I've got a lot of a lot of things.
• 26:42
  I've got a lot of things that sort of motivate me.
• 26:44
  But I think the sort of sort of the biggest one, obviously,
• 26:49
  obviously now, like obviously when I was younger, you know, I
• 26:52
  wanted to be like Ellie Simmons, you know, like she was, she was
• 26:55
  the one who inspired me growing up and, you know, open, open my
• 27:00
  eyes to sort of oh, like people with, with dwarfism and can do
• 27:05
  elite sports. We can, we can go and, and
• 27:07
  compete on these, on these stages.
• 27:11
  And I think now, obviously that that I'm that I'm older.
• 27:16
  I, I always think back to sort of the like younger me and that,
• 27:22
  you know, sort of like this is where this is what she wanted to
• 27:26
  do. This is where she wanted to be.
• 27:28
  And it is that sort of like I want to, I want to make, I want
• 27:31
  to look back in however many years when I'm no longer doing
• 27:37
  the sport and just look at what I've achieved.
• 27:43
  So I, that sort of inspires me and motivates me.
• 27:46
  And I think my family as well and my friends, I, I, you know,
• 27:51
  I always want to make them proud, as I'm sure a lot, a lot
• 27:57
  of, a lot of people do. But I, I like, I always go out,
• 28:02
  I always go out to these comps. I'm like, as long as I've, you
• 28:04
  know, as long as I've made myself proud and I've made, you
• 28:08
  know, those around me proud, then it's, you know, then that's
• 28:12
  a win for me. You know, even if, if it's, if
• 28:16
  it's a medal, you know, amazing. But as long as long as the
• 28:20
  people important to me are proud of me, then yeah, then that's a
• 28:23
  win. And I'm sure you've made
• 28:25
  yourself and the people in your life very, very proud so far.
• 28:30
  And I'm saying so far because, you know, you're only 24 and
• 28:34
  you've already done so, so much and you're absolutely smashing
• 28:37
  it. And it's so great to see, you
• 28:40
  know, just some further inspiration online showing that,
• 28:44
  you know, disabled people can do this.
• 28:46
  You know, we can go out there and just do what we want and
• 28:49
  chase what our dreams, chase what we really, really want to
• 28:53
  do and be really good at it at the same time.
• 28:56
  What else have you got coming up for Olivia Broome?
• 29:00
  So what we've got coming up, we've got, we've got our
• 29:03
  Europeans next month, our European Championships and that
• 29:07
  sort of kicks off the the qualifying period for the LA
• 29:12
  Games. So that's not the immediate one.
• 29:15
  Obviously Glasgow Commonwealth Games after that and Worlds and
• 29:19
  that's sort of the sporting side.
• 29:21
  But as far as you know, likewise, who who knows at that
• 29:25
  point, who knows who knows what, what, what else I've got, I've
• 29:31
  got in future. I love that.
• 29:33
  Just go with the flow, you know? You have to leave some room for
• 29:35
  spontaneity as well, you know. Yeah, exactly.
• 29:38
  I mean, I mean, well, I mean other other than like obviously
• 29:42
  just buying a house and and read and redoing that.
• 29:45
  And I mean that that's, that's taught me a bit more spontaneity
• 29:48
  because you know who who knows what happens with that, with,
• 29:51
  with that. But yeah, sort of like in, in,
• 29:54
  in, in the sport, in the sporting side of, of life.
• 29:58
  Yeah, Europeans is next, which which is, which is exciting
• 30:02
  because obviously after a games, you get a lot of new, new
• 30:06
  athletes coming in and sort of new names, new faces.
• 30:10
  And it's, it's kind of it's exciting to see sort of where,
• 30:14
  where you stand with, with a lot with the newer ones coming in.
• 30:17
  Obviously people will say, like, I'm very young.
• 30:18
  I don't feel young in this sport.
• 30:21
  I think because I've been doing it for so long.
• 30:23
  And you get sort of new faces coming in and you're like,
• 30:27
  you've got like so much progress to make.
• 30:29
  Jesus. OK, maybe you're not the
• 30:31
  youngest there anymore, but you've still got, you know, the
• 30:35
  other games coming up. So best of luck for the
• 30:37
  Europeans. We'll be cheering you on and
• 30:40
  following your journey. Where can we find you on social
• 30:42
  media? So you can find me on Instagram
• 30:46
  at Olivia Broome, Power Lifter. That tends to be where I post
• 30:50
  the most. I don't do, I don't do the
• 30:53
  Twitter or the threads or anything else really.
• 30:56
  Yeah, that's right. Instagram is a good place to be.
• 30:58
  I'd say it's the best. I like Instagram, Instagram is
• 31:02
  nice. To end this episode, I'd love to
• 31:05
  ask you a question I ask all my interviewees, which is is there
• 31:09
  a piece of advice you would give your younger self or someone
• 31:12
  else that's maybe struggling with their disability?
• 31:15
  I think if there's something that you really, that you really
• 31:18
  want to do, whether it's, you know, sport wise or career wise
• 31:22
  or, or hobby wise, no matter like what, I think just go for
• 31:26
  it because you never, you never know what, what it could entail.
• 31:30
  For those that are sort of struggling with, with their
• 31:33
  disability, I always advocate, you know, to, to find an amazing
• 31:38
  sort of support group or networks that you know, like,
• 31:42
  and that could be your friends, your family.
• 31:44
  And like I, I'm very fortunate that if I have any, you know,
• 31:50
  worries or concerns or, you know, I'm having a bad, a bad
• 31:54
  day, I can, I can go to those, to those people and tell them.
• 31:59
  And I think, I think that's such an important thing to have.
• 32:03
  So if there's anything that I could that I could say to those
• 32:05
  is find a a great support networking people who who care.
• 32:11
  Absolutely. It makes such a difference to
• 32:13
  your quality of life. When you've got people around
• 32:16
  you that just get you and you know you can lean on them for
• 32:20
  support, it makes such a huge difference.
• 32:23
  Yeah, exactly. Like I like, like me and my
• 32:26
  friends, we always, we always make like I might obviously now
• 32:29
  that I'm older, like I can, I can joke about my disability.
• 32:33
  And like we, we had it quite recently actually.
• 32:36
  Like we were doing up the house and we were talking about like
• 32:39
  washing machines and drying machines.
• 32:41
  And one of my friends was like, Oh yeah, you could put them on
• 32:43
  top of each other. I was like, well, they'd have to
• 32:44
  be next to each other. You know, 4 foot 2 can't be.
• 32:48
  And she's like, I sometimes forget that you're short.
• 32:51
  I'm like, Yep. I'm like, it's wonder.
• 32:54
  It's wonderful because he's not that much taller than me, but I
• 32:59
  think that I think that's, I think that's the nice part with
• 33:01
  with like support networks is like, you know, they sometimes
• 33:06
  like while they while they know that you've got a disability,
• 33:08
  they'll sometimes forget. And it's kind of like then it
• 33:11
  means that that's not your sole personality.
• 33:14
  No, it's you for the other things that you do in the, which
• 33:19
  is nice. Yeah, exactly.
• 33:22
  I love that though. I love being able to joke with
• 33:24
  your friends about your disability.
• 33:26
  It's, it's like it's so funny and it just means that, you
• 33:30
  know, they're comfortable with it as well.
• 33:31
  Like they're not, you know, shying away from mentioning it
• 33:34
  or just playing around with it. So that really helps as well.
• 33:40
  Yeah, yeah, that, that definitely like, you know, I
• 33:43
  think, you know, you can, if you can have fun with with your
• 33:46
  disability then then it's good I think.
• 33:50
  You're good to go. Yeah, definitely.
• 33:52
  Well, thank you so much, Olivia, for coming onto the podcast.
• 33:55
  I hope you guys listening enjoyed.
• 33:58
  If you enjoyed this episode, don't forget to rate the podcast
• 34:01
  5 stars and to follow the podcast on your favourite
• 34:04
  podcast platform. If you're watching on YouTube,
• 34:07
  don't forget to like the video and to subscribe for more
• 34:10
  episodes. And thank you so much to Cure
• 34:13
  LGMD 2 I and Bridge Bio for sponsoring this podcast.
• 34:17
  Your support means the world to me.
• 34:18
  So thank you. Thank you, Olivia again.
• 34:21
  And it's been so, so great to chat with you.
• 34:23
  And hopefully we won't be strangers now.
• 34:25
  We'll keep in touch. Yeah.
• 34:28
  Thank you for having me. It's been, it's been a pleasure.
• 34:30
  I'll be back with you guys with another episode very soon, but
• 34:33
  until then, have a lovely couple weeks.
• 34:35
  Bye.