The Ottawa Citizen article is called "Ottawa women excel at kettlebell sport", and came with a sports cover page teaser photo and a half page article with large colour photo. Click here to see it.
The Ottawa Sun on-line article is called "Ottawa athletes Lisa Pitel-Killah and Pamela Wheat excel at kettlebell sport", and has a great on-line photo of Pam and Lisa. Click here to see it.
Ottawa athletes Lisa Pitel-Killah and Pamela Wheat excel at kettlebell sport
Martin Cleary, Postmedia Network
The early athletic careers of Lisa Pitel-Killah and Pamela Wheat were totally opposite to each other.
Pitel-Killah was one of the thousands of young Canadian figure skaters working her way through the test system for 16 years before transitioning to synchronized skating for almost two decades.
Wheat, on the other hand, was a non-athletic child. In her own words: “I was built for comfort and not speed. I didn’t have the right body type (for sports). The reason I kept getting bigger and bigger with no energy was I should have been gluten free. I was a fat kid.”
But now the two Ottawa women have seen their middle-age journeys come side by side and with world championship medals around their necks because they tackled their inner struggles by latching onto kettlebell sport.
Kettlebell what? We’ve heard of the Salvation Army’s Christmas Kettle Campaign, Kettleman’s Bagel Co., and who hasn’t made tea with water boiled in a kettle? But Kettlebell sport?
In the world of fitness, kettlebells are heavy weights and look like a cannonball with a handle. They’re used in cardiovascular, strength and flexibility exercise training.
In kettlebell sport, which is like weightlifting, athletes lift kettlebells ranging from 8-32 kg over their heads in front of a judge, who watches their technique and counts their lifts over a five- or 10-minute period.
Two years ago, Pitel-Killah, 43, was looking to balance her busy life. Work as a restaurant owner had become overwhelming. She was craving an exercise program, after stopping figure skating six years ago.
While attending an exercise bootcamp, she discovered kettlebells, which became the perfect workout to balance and energize her life.
“It was tough, but you don’t have to be super jacked up. I’m only 60 kg,” said Pitel-Killah, who entered her first competition 20 months ago. “It’s all about technique and momentum ... knowing what your body is doing all the time for a maximum lift.
“It’s mentally and physically challenging. That’s what challenges me. I like the endurance part. It pushes you to your limits.”
That’s what she experienced at the end of October during her first International Union Kettlebell Lifting world championship in Atobe, Kazakhstan, as one of three Team Canada members.
Pitel-Killah won the gold medal in the women’s amateur 40-44 age class, lifting the 16-kg kettlebell a personal-best 183 times in the 10-minute snatch competition. She also earned an unexpected silver medal, when her performance was ranked with other women in the open weight class of 58-63 kg.
She qualified for Team Canada, after finishing second at the Canadian championships and replacing the winner who couldn’t go to the world championships. At this month’s Ottawa-Gatineau Agatsu kettlebell sport meet, the 61-kg athlete debuted with the 20-kg bell and raised it 90 times in less than five minutes to earn the international ranking of master of sport.
“I trained really hard. I was hoping for second in my age group (at worlds),” said Pitel-Killah, who was surprised by her gold medal, but shocked by her silver in the open class. “I never thought it was possible (silver in the open class). I was competing against girls half my age. To come out like that was insane.”
Almost five years ago, Wheat went to the gym for the first time to take Zumba dance lessons at Fitness Fusions Studio to lose weight before her sister visited from Texas. Her personal trainer, Martin Cottreau, told her kettlebell training would be a better way to shed the pounds. Wheat tried kettlebells and was hooked.
After losing 40 pounds, adding some muscle weight through training and following a specific diet, Wheat decided to enter some competitions. The non-athletic woman had become an athlete, winning one gold and three silver medals in four regional competitions in her debut 2015 season.
At the 2016 Canadian championship, Wheat, 50, won the amateur women’s snatch 68-kg-plus weight class, lifting the 16-kg kettlebell a record 181 times in 10 minutes.
That performance qualified her for Team Canada to attend the world championship, where she won silver in snatch in the women’s 50-54 age class, 68-kg-plus weight division with 221 repetitions using the 12-kg kettlebell. She also was fourth in the 16-kg snatch with 197 lifts.
“I remember being in a class and attempting to do pushups. The owner said: “I see your biceps.’ Look, I have visible muscles,” a shocked Wheat recalled. “Who has all those? Fit people.”
Not only was she becoming fit, but she was developing into the athlete she never thought she could be.
“I was stronger than most of the women in my gym. But how do I compare to other women? The only way was to compare myself to them (was in competitions),” she explained.
Wheat moved up a category and competed for the first time with a 20-kg kettlebell at this month’s Ottawa-Gatineau Agatsu meet. She lifted the bell 136 times in 10 minutes, which was four short of earning her the international ranking of candidate for master of sport.
“Because I was never a physical person, the lumpy one, the non-athletic one and when I look at what I’ve actually been able to do, so what that I started at 50; big deal,” she emphasized. “I know I can do it now.”
