Heavy Lifting | Laura Haas

Earlier this year, Keble MCR President Laura Haas (2021 DPhil Criminology), broke the Oxford deadlift record and achieved a Personal Best at the Oxford v Cambridge Powerlifting Varsity.

Laura's introduction to powerlifting began in 2020 when she found herself living near the Iffley Road Sports Centre, home to many University Clubs, including Powerlifting. Inspired by the strength of the women she saw training there, she explains: “The weight that those women were able to lift made them superheroes in my eyes, so when I got the offer for my DPhil in 2021, I decided to join the Powerlifting Club to see what I was able to achieve”. What began as a personal goal evolved into a competitive endeavour, propelled by the supportive community she found within the club.

Although initially hesitant to compete, Laura soon found “the amount of support and mutual passion for lifting made me want to compete with other members of the club”. Under the guidance of the club's coach, and with the support of her teammates, Laura made rapid progress, resulting in her being selected to represent Oxford University at various competitions, including the South Midlands University Championships, BUCS nationals and, this year, the Varsity match against Cambridge.

Laura persisted in her training over the summer, which resulted in personal success at the Varsity as she broke the Oxford deadlift record with her opener, and ended by breaking it by 22.5kg with her third attempt [her total score across the three lifts was 307.5kg]. Although the team did not win Varsity this year, Laura’s personal best was an incredibly impressive achievement in and of itself. Her performance not only earned her accolades, ranking third place for her weight class in the competition overall, but also solidified her as a formidable force in the realm of University powerlifting.

Looking ahead, Laura is preparing to compete in the British University Championships once again, this time aiming to achieve a full blue — a feat she has already come very close to earning, following on from her half-blue.

As for the reasoning behind choosing the sport, Laura says “Powerlifting is great — it makes you both physically and mentally incredibly strong. Discipline and hard work pay off, which is also a good lesson learned for life in general. For women in particular, I would strongly recommend giving powerlifting a try — it really makes you want to be the strongest and most confident version of yourself!”