Susana Donadeu does not stop surpassing herself. Four years ago, after breaking the Spanish junior record, the 25-year-old majariega became the great Spanish promise of powerlifting, a strength discipline that combines bench press, squat and deadlift. Now he is an international figure after his first place in -52 kilos at the Western Europe Championship, played in Luxembourg last weekend.
This success is accompanied by new Spanish records. Donadeu beat the bench press, in a single and absolute movement, with 77.5 kilos; the deadlift, also in both modalities, with 155; and the total, which combines the weight lifted in the three exercises, with 352.5 kilos. “I am very happy, they are very good results,” she told AS. “The best I’ve gotten so far,” he adds. And it is that the records that he has achieved far exceed the previous ones: “In the press it has been for half a kilo, which seems like not but it is a lot, and then the deadlift has been for two and a half in a single movement and seven in the absolute. The most striking improvement is in the total, that I have added 24 kilos more “. The latter, in fact, already knocked him down before, in 2019. Then he raised 326. The progression is 26.5.
What his coach at the Siderópolis gym in Ascao, Samer Kichi, who had “great potential to compete internationally,” pointed out a few years ago, has been fulfilled. It is the last step in a career that began “five years ago” with a discovery “in the networks” and that she combines with her work as a resident traumatologist.
This sport has been present in Spain since the 1980s, but it does not have the impact or structure of another similar sport such as weightlifting. In fact, in many communities there is no federation. Yes in Madrid. Donadeu gives a clue: “Weightlifting is Olympic and we are not.” And he thinks that “money and presence in the media” is lacking. What powerlifting does have is a magnificent ambassador in it: “You have to teach this sport to the public and, above all, to women.”