Louise Mather has put her rock music career on hold to hit the high notes at the Commonwealth Games.
The Glasgow-based weightlifter can lift 97 kilos that’s nearly 15 stone but finds playing the guitar more painful!
She says: “I’ve been in an electro rock band, Any Color Black, for the last eight years. I’m the singer and I play guitar.
“We’ve done really well, but with all the training I need to do for the Commonwealths, we’ve suspended it. We were offered a big gig on a boat as part of the Glasgow Sound to Sea Festival, but I had to say no because I tend to get whiplash after a performance!
“If you watch the videos on YouTube, you’ll understand why.
“I couldn’t go into one of the biggest weightlifting contests of my life needing a rub down before I start.
“People say I shouldn’t be fazed by the crowd in Glasgow because I’ve played in front of 20,000 people in Germany. But this is really different. I’ll be in spandex and making pain faces.
“It’s really different from being caked in eyeliner, with my hair over my face, running back and forward across stage.”
The 30-year-old has had a meteoric rise in her sport. Training and travelling to events is fitted around work as a videographer and photographer.
Two years ago she was a spectator at the London Olympics and decided to try weightlifting with an old rusty bar.
She went on: “I took my sister to the Olympics for her birthday, and we went to see what would be my category the Women’s 69 kilo. I got really excited, I really loved it and at the end I said I think I should have a bash at that sport.
“I tried to teach myself how to do it, training in my basement with this old rusty bar which I would never dream of using now.
“I bought it for £8 off the Internet.
“It’s best to start with the best gear, but if the best thing you can find is an iron bar, then that’s where you start!
“At first I just tried to copy movements I had seen in online videos. Then a friend knew the guy who’s now my coach, Ray Cavanagh, got me to go in to see him.
“He said: ‘Yeah, I think we’ve got something to work with here.’
“So I’ll have been weightlifting for almost two years by the time we finish up at the Games.”
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