Auckland weightlifter Olivia Selemaia Photo: Weightlifting NZ
A group of New Zealand weightlifters are on an extensive and expensive journey in the hope of getting to next year's Olympics.
One of those is 17 year old Aucklander Olivia Selemaia who earlier this year finished fourth at the World Youth Championships.
Selemaia is one of six New Zealand weightlifters in Saudi Arabia for the World Championships.
Of the six, only former Commonwealth Games champion David Liti receives High Performance Sport New Zealand funding.
Selemaia left high school in July to concentrate on her lifting.
She, along with Xavier Tiffany, Hayley Whiting, Emma McIntyre and Susana Nimo have to compete in five identified competitions around the world and gain the required results to be considered for the Paris Olympics.
Cost is a major issues for them with each athlete looking at between $30,000 and $40,000 just in travel expenses.
However after her world youth championship experience, Selemaia feels it's something she has to do.
"It was such a good experience because I got to see other youth lifters from around the world and how they train and how they execute their lifts.
"It motivated me to get better and gave me a bigger picture of where I could be in the future."
Auckland weightlifter Olivia Selemaia Photo: WEIGHTLIFTING NZ
Selemaia has been working part time to help with finances, but as with most young athletes, she's relying on family.
She was nine when she started cross fit with her mother and got into Olympic weightlifting when she was 12.
"My mum wanted to keep me active and healthy.
"I enjoyed the weightlifting part of cross fit because it allowed me to clean up my technique.
"With weightlifting I loved learning about the technique because there was just so much to learn, there's so much more to it than just lifting."
The former Sancta Maria College student is now a member of the successful Papatoetoe gym.
To get qualification for the elite world champs Selemaia had to record a 193kg total and she achieved that at the secondary school nationals in May with a total of 197kg.
At this stage she's ranked about 20kgs less than her rivals in the 64kg class this year, but she's not too concerned about her opposition at the world champs.
"Going to senior worlds is more of a battle against myself than it is towards them.
"It's to learn more about myself and push myself more because now that I'm training full time I just want to be better than I was at youth worlds and just get my numbers up."
Hopefully that will result in a place in the New Zealand team for next year's Paris Olympics.
With the International Olympic Committee continuing to limit the number of athletes at the games, weightlifting is now restricted to 120 athletes across five women's and five men's weight classes.
To be considered for selection a New Zealand lifter would either have to be ranked in the top ten in the world or be the best in the Oceania region.