Kiara Klug starts at the World Cup as one of the new figureheads of German weightlifting. With her performance, she wants to inspire a whole generation of young girls.
On her way to the world elite, Kiara Klug strives for much more than just personal best. “Above all, I would like to show young girls how cool it is to be strong,” said the 22-year-old in conversation with the “Sport Information Service (SID)”: “And that the weightlifting, which was simply a very male-dominated sport for a long time and is still still, is slowly becoming more women’s dominant.”
Despite her youth, Klug is one of the new figureheads of German weightlifting, which also experienced a noticeable upswing thanks to her.
After Klug cleared three medals at the European Championship in Moldau in April, she now wants to take the next steps in her sporting development at the World Championships in the Norwegian Fjord – and thus inspire the next generation.
Klug wants to show that it can “even be pretty cool to be strong as a woman and to move such weights”, she wants to be a role model for “young adolescents, just girls”. “Someone you can see and say: ‘Okay, you don’t always have to be thin and you don’t always have to be less than a woman,” said Klug.
Weightlifting: Klug has “slipped in” in the sport
The young athlete loves weightlifting, it quickly becomes clear. She only “slipped” into sport a few years ago. Smart that grew up in the Allgäu was previously considered a big ski talent.
But because she was “mentally broken” at the age of 16, she swore to “never make competitive sports again”. But then her sporting journey led to weightlifting over the crossfit.
And so Shootingstar Klug is just two years after her first international competition before her World Cup premiere, on Saturday (11:00 a.m.) she starts in the B group in super heavyweight (+86 kg). A possible medal is then not the focus, the direct comparison to the international competition is much more important.
After all, the event in Scandinavia should only be a stopover in the direction of fulfilling a childhood dream.
“I’ve always wanted to go to the Olympic Games – and actually for a long time to the winter games,” said Klug: “But even if it is the summer games now, the goal and the dream remain the same.” Participation in Los Angeles considers her “very ambitious”, but still “realistic”.