Ever since Holley Mangold appeared on MTV’s True-life series, “I’m a Big Girl”, her name and more notably her physique have become recognizable beyond cross fit gyms across the country. When you think of sheer power in weightlifting, you might think of a person with lean muscle mass, but not an obese 23 year old girl. Mangold is about 5’8 and weighs 350 lbs.; however her gender and size never stopped her from competing as a linebacker for her all male high school football team then competing alongside other top female athletes the Olympics as a weightlifter.
Mangold is not just famous for her athletic prowess herself; she is the younger sister of Jets player Nick Mangold. In her appearance on MTV’s True-life series, “I’m a Big Girl”, Holley compares herself to her brother and states her admiration for him which led to her wanting to play football at a very early age leading up until high school in Ohio.
Because Mangold could not be drafted like her brother onto a college football team after high school, Mangold’s position as an offensive lineman came to an end. But with all her strength to burn, she luckily was turned on to power weight lifting, in which she picked up pretty quickly. No pun intended. She trained hard at a local weight lifting gym, better known as a cross-fit gym, and became highly ranked among her peers. To prove that she was above the rest, Mangold then started competing nationally and then internationally. After being ranked nationally as one of the best female power lifters her notoriety grew and so did her competitiveness. She soon became interested in competing for a spot in the 2012 Olympics.
Before becoming an Olympic contender, Mangold competed in the following competitions and placed high in the rankings:
Jr. National Champion 2008 total: 185 kilos
Jr. World Team Member in 2008 and 2009
– 2008 6th place total: 170 kilos
– 2009 9th place total: 197 kilos
Pan American Championships
– 2010 8th place total: 210 kilos
American Open Champion 2009 and 2011
– 2009 Total: 220 kilos
– 2011 Total: 249 kilos
It was at the 2012 Olympic trials at the Arnold weightlifting Championships otherwise known as the Arnold Sports Festival in Columbus Ohio that Mangold was given a shot at the Olympics. The Arnold Sports Festival, named after one-time weight lifting champion, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and hosts popular weightlifting competitions every year. For the first time in March, the festival which is also run by the Columbus weightlifting club where Mangold trained, successfully hosted the Olympic trials.
Mangold’s larger than life physique and attitude has awarded her the attention she needed to garner hype before the Olympics, but will her size do her more harm than good? She is one out of two female lifters over 300lbs and like most athletes in weightlifting, she has sustained major injuries such as torn cartilage in her right knee, a torn tendon in her right hand.
Such injuries in this type of sport is likely to be harder to recover from when you take into the account the pressure that is put on the areas of the body that are injured, not to mention the pressure already received from the weight of the athlete. However, Mangold’s stats seem promising and she doesn’t seem to mind carrying the extra weight of the pressure as all eyes are on her to bring home the gold for the US.
