Over the last few years since I’ve been doing these athlete interviews for this magazine, I’ve often chosen interviewees based simply on top national ranking. I know many of you are weightlifting fans, and you like to read about the people who are doing huge things at the elite level.
 
However, it occurred to me recently that many of you would benefit a lot from reading about athletes who come from the same circumstances as you. I’m talking about lifters who are a little bit older, didn’t start weightlifting when they were twelve, and are trying to get the best possible results out of themselves knowing full well they’re probably never going to make the Olympic Team. That’s what made me choose Dionne Dunham for this month’s interview.
 
Dionne is the 2018 National Masters Champion in the 45-49 age group 90 kg class. Like many of you, she had various kinds of athletic experience throughout her young adult years, and then she decided to get serious about Olympic weightlifting in her late 30s. She balances a full-time career and plenty of demands on her time with her training. Sound familiar?
 
Despite the difficulties that come along with trying to be an Olympic lifter under these circumstances, she’s hitting some big masters results now, breaking two masters American records earlier this year. I love her story because it speaks for many of us who want to be successful in this sport in our beyond-25 years. She’s getting it done, just like most of you are striving to do.
 
Full disclosure: I’m Dionne’s coach, so you’ll read my name in this. It’s been a pleasure to work with her, and a terrific honor to share her story with you.
 
Tell us about your background. Where are you from, where do you currently live, what’s your occupation, family life, what kind of sports background do you have outside of lifting, etc.
 
I am originally from the town of Athol, Massachusetts. I played sports there my whole life. I was a gymnast from the age of five on the local YMCA team until high school. I competed on the swim team, soccer team, and basketball team at the Y as well. I started playing Little League Baseball at age 9 and played four years. When I reached high school and learned I had to play softball instead of baseball, I switched gears and started track and field. That is where I excelled. I gave up gymnastics and played volleyball and did track in high school and college. I competed in every field event except discus and hammer, and I ran every sprint event up to 800 and hurdles and eventually became a heptathlete. I was a Division III All-American at Westfield State College before transferring to the University of Connecticut. I arrived at UConn in 1994 and never left Connecticut. I did leave UConn though, in 1995, and I had my daughter in August of 1996. My sports from 1996 to 2004 were running road races, weightlifting, triathlon, and beer league softball. I started a law enforcement career in 1999 as a police officer for Yale University and was motorcycle cop there until I became a Connecticut State Trooper in 2001. I currently work evening shift patrol in a rural community in South Central Connecticut.
 
Describe your weightlifting history. When/how did you start? Who have your coaches been? What are your proudest accomplishments?
 
My first encounter with weights was at the age of about twelve. I had to work at the YMCA to defray the cost of being on the gymnastics team, and one of my duties was cleaning the weight rooms. There was Nautilus and there was Cybex and then there was the “dark and dirty” place downstairs where the old men (guys in their 20s and 30s) would make a lot of noise smashing weights. I was fascinated. I was always down there watching and bugging them to teach me to do what they were doing. They told me girls don’t lift and kids don’t lift. I was like that little dog constantly yipping at your heels for attention and they finally gave it to me to shut me up. I learned how to squat, bench, deadlift, and clean with a broomstick that eventually had two pieces of plywood on the ends in the shape of 45-pound plates. I was hooked. When I got to the high school I would sneak in the football weight room when I was supposed to be practicing high jump and lift. I got thrown out more than once. The weightlifting program when I was at Westfield State was very basic and no one wanted to do Olympic lifts. It wasn’t until I got to UConn and met Coach Jerry Martin in 1994 did I really, finally, have someone who knew what they were doing teach me how to snatch and clean and jerk. It was fantastic. I loved every minute of it. Once I left UConn, it was really hard to find a place that would let me do Olympic lifts. No gyms had bumper plates. You couldn’t drop the weights. It wasn’t until I became a Yale cop and had access to the varsity weight room could I start Olympic lifting again. I did it on my own with sporadic coaching from the strength and conditioning coaches at Yale until I went to the State Police Academy in 2001. I never competed when I was “young.”
 
I became a runner when I was in the State Police Academy. I biked, ran, and swam for a few years and had my sights on becoming a triathlete when I was injured in an accident while working on the highway in 2005. The resulting back injury put me out of commission for almost six years. I was told by multiple specialists I would never again run, lift weights, play sports, or be able to go back on patrol. Two back surgeries, multiple procedures, thousands of hours of physical therapy and Pilates put me back together and just to prove them wrong, I ran the Marine Corps Marathon in 2014. Thankfully, by the time I was ready to lift weights again, CrossFit had come into existence, and there were places EVERYWHERE to Olympic Lift. My first coach as a Master’s lifter was Eric Brandom originally at Crossfit Cheshire and then at CrossFit Bethany in 2012-2013. Eric coached me at my first competition in 2013. I switched gyms to 3E CrossFit, and Ed Williams was my coach from 2014 to 2017. Without the foundation that Eric helped me build and the fine points of training, recovery, and accessory work that I learned from Ed, I would not be where I am today. I built a platform in my garage and started training on my own in the summer of 2017, but realized that while I very much enjoy lifting alone, I could not program for myself without getting hurt. I had met Matt Foreman at a Master’s only camp at the OTC in 2015, and when I saw his post on Facebook for remote training/programming, I jumped on the opportunity. Matt has been coaching me since the end of 2017, and it is the best decision I have made in regards to weightlifting.
 
I have been to Nationals three times and won PanAms twice. My proudest moment in weightlifting should be when I won Nationals this year after coming in second the first two times. But actually, it is when my kid posts pictures of me lifting on Instagram all proud of me and calls me BAM (Bad Ass Mom).
 
Please give a basic description of your training method. Just tell us as much as you can about your program, weekly/yearly planning, etc.
 
I don’t know, Matt. You tell me! Hahaha. I don’t have any idea what is coming. Previously, Eric and Ed did all of my programming. I did not worry about the why. I just did the what. Then when I started training on my own, I picked a Catalyst 16-week program that looked pretty hard and did that. Now, I am beginning to understand the purpose of high volume, consistency training, and strength building. I won’t even pretend to know more than a bit about programming, but each new week that Matt sends me my workouts, I understand a little more. I am currently training to compete at only a couple of meets a year. I wish I could go to Worlds this year, but it just isn’t in the cards work-wise. But for next year, I will be training for Nationals, PanAms, and Worlds.
 
Describe some of the obstacles you face, or maybe some things that frustrate you in your weightlifting life. What kinds of changes would you like to see, either personally or with the sport in general?
 
Aside from a traumatic injury to my spine that needs to always be taken into consideration, I would say my biggest frustration is real life getting in the way of my lifting! I work between 50 and 70 hours a week on patrol which includes lots of double shifts. My training gets shifted all over the place and sometimes no matter how hard you want to train after working an eves/mids double, your body just says no. I like the weight class change that happened last year. I’m not as excited that they are changing them again and nobody has any real idea what they are going to be. I mean there is a lot of supposition, but no one really knows. I like that Masters weightlifters are being treated at athletes and not afterthoughts now. I believe Masters has come a long way and still has growing to do. Everyone gets old and no one, especially weightlifters, ever wants to stop. Our numbers are going to keep climbing, and I hope the new committee and USA Weightlifting continue the trend of Masters being an important facet of the weightlifting community.
 
What are your plans and goals for your weightlifting career? How do you see your future in the sport?
 
My goal is to keep getting stronger and increasing my totals even though I am getting older. You do not have to stop growing just because you are growing old! I am a 45 now, and I am hitting squat numbers I haven’t seen since I was 22. I set the 45-49 90kg class record in the snatch and total this year, but that will probably be out the window after the weight class changes, so my goal is to set them again next year, and add clean and jerk as well. And do it again when I am 50, 55, 60… I do not plan on stopping. And my future will also be behind the scenes with Weightlifting. My retirement from law enforcement is not too far away. I plan on coaching and becoming much more involved in refereeing, volunteering at meets local and national, and hopefully bringing a national meet to Connecticut. Mohegan Sun anyone??
 
 
Who are some of your major influences, people you look up to, etc.? Who are the people you want to thank for your success?
 
I had a Little League coach. His name was Ken Fish. He has passed away, but I the lessons I learned from him are ingrained in who I am. He was hard. He was not a bakery. He sugar-coated nothing. He made us work. Running, drilling, practice practice practice, longer and harder than any other team, more than any other players. Not a lot of carrot and a whole lot of stick. And we were the best. No one else could even come close. Because we worked for it. His lessons on the field have carried over to my life. I work for it. Thanks, Ken. Life lessons I will never forget.
 
As for a role model I looked up to? I ran track. I was a heptathlete. A heptathlete with asthma. So of course, Jackie Joyner-Kersee was my role model. I competed at meets that she competed in and I was always so impressed with her focus, determination, non-stop hard work, and never settling for just being gifted but putting in the maximal effort to enhance the gift. Everything that Coach Fish taught us she embodied, and that is the kind of athlete and person I wanted to be, and still want to be.
 
You’re getting there, Dionne. It’s been fun to see your progress over the last year, and you’ve only scratched the surface of what you’re capable of! Thanks for sharing your time with Catalyst Athletics.