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Deadlifting in Your Nineties, in “Strong Grandma”
The New Yorker
Follow
3/26/2025
An unusual power lifter trains for competition in Cecilia Brown and Winslow Crane-Murdoch’s short documentary.
Category
🛠️
Lifestyle
Transcript
Display full video transcript
00:00
I'm going to go to bed now.
00:30
Come on, you got this, come on, just like you do, come on, push, try it buddy, try it.
00:59
160 kilos, 1-6-0 kilos.
01:15
Aren't you serious? Look at all the weight.
01:23
Is this really your last one?
01:26
I'm thinking about it, I really am.
01:30
One more.
01:41
Good.
01:44
Chest up, good, strong, two.
01:48
Good.
01:50
My name is Catherine Keene, I am 95 and a world record deadlifter.
02:05
In competition, I have won every event that I have entered.
02:11
My world champion trophy.
02:14
It's been very easy for me to be world champion, which I do not feel,
02:22
simply because no one my age was doing it.
02:28
This one was the first one, and I lifted at 121 on my fourth attempt, and that was in June of 2013.
02:39
I started weightlifting, both my husband and I, in my 80s, because I had osteopenia.
02:47
I was 85 the first time I competed.
02:52
I remember my first meet, I was very nervous, scared, pitless.
02:59
Pitless.
03:08
One of the coaches said I had perfect form, and I said, thank you.
03:16
I had no idea what perfect form was.
03:20
Going to the first national competition was very humbling.
03:27
When I competed, the roar of the crowd was unbelievable.
03:37
I thought, I don't deserve this.
03:42
I haven't done anything out of the ordinary.
03:49
What they make you wear at the competition is a wrestler's singlet.
03:56
That is not very becoming to a woman in any shape or form.
04:06
I don't care to be as beepy and as strong as they are. I'm too old for that.
04:15
I'll never be it, so I'm not going to wish for it.
04:22
I train with Dean on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and my training partner, Peggy Neal.
04:32
Dean teases her unmercifully.
04:46
She's such a joy.
05:08
Peggy fills the gap that I have without Dick.
05:16
Dick was my biggest supporter.
05:20
He was all for it, and he was always on the front row, rooting me on.
05:30
I wasn't that adventurous on my own.
05:35
I was always on the front row.
05:39
I wasn't that adventurous on my own, but together we'd do anything.
05:50
Dick and I met at Bunker Hill Air Force Base in Indiana.
05:57
I was working in the flight surgeon's office as the secretary,
06:02
and he was assigned there as the flight surgeon.
06:07
When Sergeant Ziegler introduced me, I fell for him immediately.
06:15
He always said, oh, it's the uniform.
06:19
It wasn't the uniform, it was his eyes.
06:23
It took me three months to get him to ask me out,
06:27
and we went to see Ben-Hur.
06:32
I disturbed you.
06:34
Which was a long, long, long movie.
06:39
Well, I had just seen it two days earlier, and I wasn't about to say no.
06:49
That was the beginning.
06:51
That was the beginning.
06:53
We met in 59, and we were married in 61.
06:59
We were always together.
07:02
He taught me to ski, and he loved flying.
07:08
Could not understand why I wanted to jump out of an airplane at 10,000 feet.
07:16
I just thought that would be an interesting thing to do.
07:22
We just enjoyed being together.
07:28
I was just glad I had the time with him that I did.
07:34
We were together 61 years.
07:40
And then right after that, he was gone.
07:46
He was gone.
08:16
I probably would not have competed without Dick.
08:43
You know, when you have your soulmate rooting for you, you've got to do it.
08:51
You've just got to do it.
08:54
Good to see you.
09:04
And I did do well at nationals.
09:07
I don't doubt it one bit.
09:08
That is so awesome.
09:09
Did you know she's a powerlifter?
09:10
No, are you serious?
09:14
Powerlift?
09:15
Yes.
09:16
Oh my gosh.
09:17
That's remarkable.
09:18
I want to be you when I grow up.
09:24
I have no idea what the secret is that I am 95 and still healthy.
09:30
Just keep moving.
09:32
Don't sit on the sofa and watch TV or be on your phone.
09:40
Live as much as you can.
09:43
The only advice I have.
09:44
Zero kilos, 352 pounds.
10:16
I'm never going to look back.
10:18
What else do you want?
10:19
All the best.
10:20
You've got this.
10:21
You've got this.
10:22
Hold it!
10:23
Check it out!
10:24
Come on!
10:25
Pull!
10:26
Pull!
10:27
Yay!
10:28
Yay!
10:29
Yay!
10:30
Are they ready?
10:31
Let's do it.
10:32
Okay, last one!
10:33
Deep breaths!
10:34
Let's go!
10:35
Come on!
10:36
Oh my gosh.
10:37
You've got this.
10:38
Keep going.
10:39
Everybody's got a number.
10:40
You've got this.
10:41
Come on!
10:42
Yeah, yeah.
10:43
With all of my family there and all of my grandkids, I goofed.
11:08
I wanted to deadlift a hundred pounds so badly and I could not move that bar.
11:17
I thought that would be my last weightlifting competition.
11:21
I've changed my mind.
11:22
I want to keep competing until I can hit that hundred.
11:29
I want that hundred.
11:32
And I know it can be done if I'm good and healthy.
11:46
I had a dentist back in Iowa that said I'd have my teeth at 107.
11:55
I don't want to be 107, I don't think, unless I'm healthy.
12:18
As long as I can be self-sufficient, I want to live.
12:27
I don't want to leave here.
12:31
I look out at the mountains.
12:36
When you can see them, it's so peaceful.
12:52
And I like to watch the birds eating all the food and fighting over who gets it now.
13:07
But the moment I have to go into assisted living or a nursing home, I'm ready to go.
13:17
God has blessed us greatly that no one can deny.
13:27
Know that this is true.
13:30
I want eternity with you.
13:36
The fundamental truth is I love you forever.
13:45
What would Dick say if he saw you now?
13:48
Well, first he'd put his arms around me and hug me, and then kiss me.
13:55
And he'd say, he would say, I'm proud of you.
14:01
And I love you.
14:04
I know that's what he would say.
14:26
Woo!
14:28
Big breath!
14:30
Big breath!
14:32
Big breath!
14:34
Sweet testosterone!
14:36
Come on!
14:38
Come on!
14:40
Woo!
14:55
Woo!
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