Chloe Allen’s schedule is one many people couldn’t even imagine maintaining. Allen wakes up at 3:30 a.m., trains all morning, goes to school to teach all day, coaches after school for a few hours and finally ends her day with mobility at home. This is all while trying to maintain a healthy sleep schedule, have good eating habits and manage stress. However, once Allen discovered crossfit and eventually olympic weightlifting, she never looked back.
Allen has been a health teacher at Fond du Lac High School for two years. This year she took the initiative to begin the Fondy Weightlifting Club and was able to share her knowledge and this large part of her life with students. “It’s very fun to watch them get those little successes…so it’s fun to see that like passion kind of come into them,” Allen said.
Allen has been athletic all of her life but got serious in college. While in school she earned her Crossfit level one trainer certification. Later she switched into just Olympic weightlifting and will soon receive her USA Weightlifting level two certification.
“My favorite lift is probably the snatch…it’s powerful…from the coaching perspective, when you watch someone finally be able to snatch it’s really fun cause it’s not as hard as it looks,” Allen said. When she began the Fondy Weightlifting club this school year, she discovered how rewarding it can be to watch others learn how to complete certain lifts.
Allen learned that the school had been wanting a weightlifting club for a while, but she was the one who made it happen. After learning about the highschool initiative grant needed from USAW, she applied immediately and got to work.
“I did that last spring and basically since then worked all summer to start marketing in it, got the website up and running and did all that sort of stuff and now we’re here,” Allen said.
Allen is currently the only coach of the team and trains with students of all levels. “Anyone can join Fondy Weightlifting at any time, kind of the cool thing about it because it’s a year-round sport and self-paced,” she said. This means it can work with almost any schedule, and it doesn’t require prior knowledge to join.
Weightlifting has become a normalcy to Allen, and she is interested in helping others find their passion for this sport because of the ways it has impacted her. “…it’s really good at that character building, and you can do it throughout your entire life,” she said. Allen has no plans on stopping her lifting journey anytime soon, and looks forward to coaching others through this sport.
