Olympic Weightlifter & Medical Student: Deborah Alawode

Hi! My name is Deborah Alawode, and I am an MBPhD student at University College London

(UCL). For those who are unfamiliar with the MBPhD programme, it is a 9-year combined

Medical Degree (6 years), with a PhD (3 years) sandwiched between the first and second

clinical years. I have just started the first year of my PhD, which is on developing novel

supersensitive blood and cerebrospinal fluid biomarkers for Alzheimer’s disease, at the UK

Dementia Research Institute at UCL. Separate to my degree, a large proportion of my time

goes to training in my sport, Olympic Weightlifting. Since starting weightlifting, I have

achieved a great deal, including being the current British U23 record holder in the Women’s

-71kg category, and recently being selected for the England Commonwealth Games

Weightlifting Training Squad (CWTS; https://www.englandweightlifting.org/news/the-

england-commonwealth-games-training-squad/). In this article, I will tell you a little bit

about how I got into weightlifting, as well as some of the challenges I have faced combining

the demands of Medical School with commitments to my sport.

I was first introduced to weightlifting in May 2013, when my coach, Kazem Panjavi, ran a 6-week taster course at my high school. By the end of the course, Kazem had nicknamed me ‘The One’ as he said he saw huge potential in me, and was eager to keep me under his wing. So much so that after the course, he invited me to the annual competition at his club, Stars For The Future (SFTF) Weightlifting Club, where I competed in my first competition (see image of newspaper article). At this competition, Kazem invited me to join SFTF. However, I declined his offer because at the time, I had numerous other sporting and musical commitments both inside and outside of school, and I was preparing to go into my GCSE year. As such, I didn’t think it would be a good idea to take on yet another extra-curricular activity, especially since I knew I would need good grades to have a chance of getting into Medical School. Fast-forward one year to July 2014. At this point, I had completed my GSCE exams and was enjoying my 3-month-long summer holiday before starting my AS-levels.

One Saturday evening, I noticed the following email sitting in my inbox:

Hello the one.

I need your help.

Our female competitor who was due to represent Ealing at London Youth Games is

now unable to compete at Crystal Palace this Sunday 6th July.

Would you like to join me?

You and my boy have a chance of getting bronze or 4th place.

Please let me know.

I saw it the night before the competition, but regardless, I replied offering my services, and

the rest is history. I competed the following morning at London Youth Games, having not

touched a bar for over one year, and have continued training since then.

It has now been over 6.5 years since that day, and I have not looked back once. From qualifying for my first English Senior Championships in 2015 to now being the reigning English Senior and British U23 Champion, it has been a rewarding journey. I have

been fortunate enough to see the sport grow into what it is today, particularly with the increasing number of women involved in the UK, some of whom excel on the international platform.

However, the road has not always been easy. One such challenge was during my second year of Medical School. Our timetable was packed full of lectures and activities, so the only time I had to train was in the morning before the scheduled teaching began. The problem I faced was that our university gym only opened at 7:30am, however my lectures always began at 9am. That gave me 1.5 hours, to get in, warm up, train, get changed and be sat in the lecture theatre, bearing in mind my training sessions usually took 2-3 hours… Whilst I managed to stick with it, looking back, I realise how detrimental that year was to my training. I would regularly skip vital parts of my training programme due to a lack of time, which inevitably decreased my rate of improvement, but, more importantly, put me at increased risk of injury.

Moving on into my iBSc year, although I had more time to train, I was still taking a relaxed

attitude towards soft tissue maintenance and ensuring I ended each session by doing

accessory exercises for injury prevention. This culminated in me sustaining my most serious

injury to date in May 2019. Almost 2 years on from that, I have only recently been able to

say I am almost completely pain-free. These past 2 years training around an injury and

through chronic pain, under the guidance and expertise of an experienced and incredibly

talented sports physiotherapist, have taught me a lot about myself and about what I can do

to help keep my body in good shape. However, most importantly for me, as a Christian, it

has helped me put my trust in God completely. The pandemic gave me the opportunity to take a step back from the busy-ness of life, and spend extra time doing my rehab work and correcting imbalances I’d picked up over the years. As such, I am now the most injury-free I have ever been since I began weightlifting, and I am seeing the benefits of my new daily body maintenance routine (a mixture of rehab, soft tissue work and stretching) in my training.

Had I not been through this injury, and learned everything I have, I don’t believe I would

have been able to achieve the results I needed to be selected for the England CWTS. Whilst I am not yet guaranteed a place on the final Commonwealth Games team, these past few

years have equipped me with the tools I need to make this dream a reality. I am dedicated

to doing all I can to represent England at the Commonwealth Games in 2022, whilst also

praying for God’s will to be done, even if that means I do not make the team.

However, one thing I know for certain is that I would not be anywhere near this position if not for: 1) my coaches, Kristian McPhee and Kazem Panjavi, and all of my team mates; 2) my physio, Wayne Kitchener; 3) all the support I receive from Katie Sykes and the Elite Athlete Programme at Team UCL; and 4) the Sport England Talented Athlete Scholarship Scheme.

Thank you very much for taking the time to read this article. I hope you’ve enjoyed gaining

an insight into my weightlifting journey.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Deborah Alawode is an MBPhD student at University College London, currently midway through the first year of her PhD in Alzheimer’s disease. Outside of Medical School and PhD work, a large proportion of her time goes to training in her sport, Olympic Weightlifting, where she holds multiple British U23 records and national titles. She has recently been selected for the England Commonwealth Games Weightlifting Training Squad in preparation for the Commonwealth Games in 2022. Aside from this, she is an active member of her Church, singing and playing violin on the worship team and co-leading one of their mid-week Bible study groups.

Instagram: @debbie.a_9