Weightlifting can be traced back to ancient Greeks
and Egyptians.
But Samoa seems to be the new hot spot arising.
Despite a secluded location in the Pacific Ocean,
Samoans seem to be dominating in the biggest weightlifting
competitions worldwide.
Let's find out how their passion for the sport
has given them success and the drive
to be one of the top Olympic weightlifting
teams in the world.
(OLYMPIC OUTPOSTS PRESENTED BY BRIDGESTONE)
(SAMOA)
(APIA)
I'm Terron Beckham.
You may have noticed me from my viral fitness videos
taking over the internet.
I've come to Samoa to see how this tiny island has
taken over the Olympic weightlifting stage.
I want to see what their gyms are
like, how they are staying fit, and to observe their culture.
Since I travelled a long way to get here,
I've been dying to get a train session in with some
of the best Samoan weightlifters.
Let's find out what we got.
You brought the first medal here to Samoa
in 2008, Beijing Olympics.
How did the country react
to your winning the medal?
My country is so happy, just won, best of my life,
an Olympics medal.
Did that motivate your family to weightlift?
Yeah.
My whole family, sisters and brothers and my brother's kids
we train.
That's amazing. That's a very comforting feeling,
just having the whole family here, bringing each other up.
How often do you have to train a week?
We train six days a week.
Sometimes we train on Sundays also.
So it's two training sessions a day, sometimes three times
a day.
And that's throughout the year.
So there's no such thing as
what they say, overtraining for you?
There's such thing as not enough training.
And when you're from a country like Samoa, which were down
at the bottom, and trying to catch up
to the big guns like Russia and China,
there's no such thing as overtraining.
We need more and more training.
As a matter of fact, we need to train four times a day.
What in the day goes along with the weight training?
Some of these lifters have to go to work.
Some have to go to school.
We do it basically for the country,
to get that flag raised internationally
at the Olympic Games, at the Commonwealth Games.
That's really the passion
behind what we do here in weightlifting.
What makes Samoa different?
Well, first of all, we have very limited resources,
limited funding.
We had a lot of work to do.
We had to learn the hard way.
But I think over the years, we managed
to tap into the local talent and take that to a deep level.
We are driven, passionate, and we won't stop
until we win that gold medal.
Let's go!
We want speed.
No speed, you're not going to get it up.
Here with Lauititi Lui, who just won second
at n the Commonwealth Games.
How do you feel about that?
This is my first time to get a silver medal
at the Commonwealth.
500lbs overhead.
What do you have planned?
I need to do the rehab on my knees and I think some training
next year for the Olympics.
Is today just one of your heavy days?
- No. - No?
- It's light. - It's a light day?
What?
You know, when I train, I go in the gym,
I'm like the top dog.
I put up all the weight.
I do impressive stuff.
That, putting up 315 overhead, everybody
looking at me like, crazy, right?
People around here, they see that, it's just like,
I could do that too.
Like Jerry said, their resources are limited.
I think that's going to motivate me to really
not complain about where I'm at, get training done,
whether it's home, gym,
outside, just do it and just be great.
Because all of us are achieving greatness.
I had a great time training with the national team.
And after meeting Ele, who brought the first Olympic medal
to Samoa and comes from a family of weightlifters,
we've been invited to their home.
So hopefully we get to see that medal.
Welcome to my house.
- Would you like to come in? - Yes.
Thank you for inviting me. Wow.
All these astonishing medals.
Is that the Beijing, right there, silver medal?
Yeah.
Wow. Seeing this medal right now in your hands,
how did you feel when you knew you won?
First time in my life we have a medal from Olympics.
In Samoa, no-one has a medal in all sports.
I'm so, so, so happy to...
You got one. Amazing.
When you were travelling to Beijing,
what was going on in your head?
I'm not thinking about winning a medal.
I think about, I want to lift the weight.
I want, fire, I can do it.
I'm so confident.
I can do it. I can do it.
(MARY OPELOGE'S HOUSE)
So you all these medals around here.
Who showed you how to weightlift?
Oh, the first person was my auntie.
How does it feel to be a part of a family of weightlifters?
It's a good motivation for us.
Some others, they train and we are there
to help each other, pushing them,
keep going, going to reach their goals.
I always got a gold medal...
- Always got a gold medal. - Yeah.
Have you ever been to the Olympics?
Yes, it's amazing.
I got a very good experience, Olympics,
that's the end of everyone
aiming for any games.
And I'm so happy inside,
weightlifting my first time.
This one, it's my gold medal
for the Commonwealth Championship
2015.
That's my last gold medal for the Commonwealth Championship.
And I got injured from that.
That's a good way to kind of go out, honestly.
You come back even stronger. Nice.
Well, thank you for your time, your accomplishments are great.
Get better with your injury.
I know you'll be back on that big platform.
Thank you.
We're here where some of the
weightlifters come as a job
to plant taro. This is taro?
Yeah.
It seems as if the physical training never stops.
Are we making a spot for the taro, to plant?
- Yeah. - OK.
We got some back work, some shoulder work.
Yeah, this is definitely a workout.
Time for me to jump in on the plant.
I came up doing labour work in the south, Texas, Arkansas.
When people ask you, where you get your strength from?
How do you look like that?
Stuff like this is a great base to really
develop the body without even knowing it
and to build more from your weightlifting.
So these guys are constantly getting stronger and stronger
day by day.
Now it's time to eat.
So what do we have behind us?
- We're going to make umu. - Umu?
Yeah, make taro and bananas to put on the umu.
We make fire, we can cook.
- Yeah. - OK.
All right.
So what we got here?
Coconut cream and fish.
And onions inside.
And it's beautiful.
Taro here.
So this is the fish.
Put the taro in it.
Put the taro in it? Like this?
Yeah, scoop it up.
Whoa!
The fish makes the taro so much better.
My guy.
Would you say this is the key
to the success of weightlifting?
The taro I think has a lot to add to our diet.
It's given us heavy bones and heavy muscles.
Hey, man, look, I'd love to hear you keep talking,
but I'm just going to keep eating.
I just finished, just to let you know.
It's been an incredible time here
training with the weightlifting team
and really understanding where they come from.
To see people that have been doing it for years and years
and years and use my max as their warm-up, which
is something that really opened my eyes to see like, wow,
these people are out here working twice as hard,
going at it each and every day.
And it's going to make me go back home
and really put in work.
It's clear that these athletes are on the rise
and they're not stopping any time soon.