Ashley Perkovich was a gymnastics standout at Auburn Mountainview High School, indeed, an all-around outstanding athlete in just about anything she tried.
Not long after her 2009 graduation Perkovich met up with her first gymnastics club coach. Chris Heinig, an Olympic weightlifter, who had known Perkovich since she was 8 years old. He wanted to know if she was involved in any sports.
Fastpitch? Gymnastics? Volleyball?
Turns out, she wasn’t.
Then followed the firm but gentle nudge of someone who understood her to the core. “All right,” Heinig said, “we’re getting you into the gym.”
It was there a week later that Perkovich discovered an unexpected new avenue for her considerable athletic gifts and restless energy — weightlifting. In the days, weeks and months ahead, she would take to the competitive sport, as the old saying goes, like a duck to water.
“Oh, I loved it,” Perkovich said. “And it worked great because, with gymnastics, I had the initial flexibility, and I knew where I was in space with my body. So learning all these new motions and stuff from him was great because, in gymnastics you go through so many corrections at one time. Where your toes are? Are your toes straight? It was like that with weightlifting, and I caught on really quick.”
Quick? Now that’s a bit of an understatement. Since then Perkovich’s rise in competitive weightlifting has been nothing short of meteoric.
Within a year, the 5-foot-5 Perkovich, who competes in the 63-kilogram (139 pounds) class, found herself in Bulgaria competing at the 2010 Junior World, where she finished 14th. By the 2010 Junior Nationals, she would take her game to another level, earning a fourth.
In the 2010 American Open, she claimed her first place; and in the 2010 American Open she earned a second-place total. In the 2012 Nationals, she earned a first-place total, a first-place clean-and-jerk and a second-place snatch.
Not bad at all for three years.
Eyes on 2016 Games
Perkovich is definitely on her way, indeed, she hopes, all the way to the 2016 Olympic Games. She trains five days and week, Monday through Thursday and Saturday.
Her immediate concern, however, has been making it to the Pan American Championships in Antigua on Friday. She boarded her plane today.
In November Perkovich, travels to Israel for the World University Championships.
Then she’ll settle down to the serious business of training for the 2016 Olympic games.
“They already have the trials for 2012, so it’s 2016, and that remains my ultimate goal. Most likely I’ll be moving down to the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs in January to become a resident and train there under a coach who was the world and team coach for Poland for many years. He coached Olympic champions,” Perkovich said.
Perkovich attends Green River Community College. She plans to pursue a four-year degree in X-ray tech radiology at Pikes Peak in Colorado,” Perkovich said.
While she’s earning her degree, she’ll be training at the Olympic Training Complex in Colorado Springs.
“I just like staying in shape, and this is something that I was really good at pretty quick, and my coach said I had a lot of talent. I like maintaining muscle mass, and I’ve always been a strong person. There’s always something in the gym I find I can do better at. Like, if I have a bad day with the lifts, I don’t let that discourage me. There’s always a push press that I could do better in. Always some little thing I can correct and feel better about.:
The sport, she said, drives her to do a little bit better each day with each individual thing.
“I always do my best on any given day. That’s what keeps me in the gym.”
Auburn City Councilmember Largo Wales has taken up Perkovich’s cause, contributing $100 toward getting her to the Pan American Championships.
“It’s an opportunity to support one of our female athletes, and in what my age group sees as a non-traditional sport. And my goal, as far as the City of Auburn goes, is to increase our visibility, and to let people know how great we are. And this is one of our great student athletes,” Wales said.
Perkovich said that a woman competing in this traditional man’s sport, she gets her share of comments.
Let ’em talk, she says.
“A lot of people ask if my parents approve, because it is a man’s sport. Well, I don’t care what others think. It’s what I like to do. I like looking good. There are no manly features about it. I’m just a fit woman. Maybe some people envy that. My parents are proud of me and proud that I’m not into trouble doing other things,” Perkovich said.
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INSERT COURTESY PHOT0: Auburn’s Ashley Perkovich competes in the clean-and-jerk competition at the recent women’s national championships, where she won the 63-kilogram class.
