By Nick Mulvenney, Reuters
Eileen Cikamatana Photo: Supplied
Eileen Cikamatana's path to her first Olympics has been anything but straightforward but the Fijian-born weightlifter punched her ticket to Paris at the weekend and is determined to return with a medal.
A teenage prodigy, Cikamatana won a Commonwealth Games gold medal for Fiji in 2018 but a schism in the weightlifting world in Fiji led to her upping sticks and throwing her lot in with Australia.
Unfortunately, she made the decision too late to qualify for the Tokyo Games but she will now get her chance to become an Australian Olympian after being named in the 81kg class for Paris on Sunday.
"The Olympics is the biggest goal of any athlete," the bubbly 24-year-old told Reuters earlier this year.
"It's every athlete's dream to be at the Olympics and to be a podium finisher is the greatest goal that anyone could look at. That's what we're going for."
Fiji's Eileen Cikamatana was among four Pacific Island athletes to win medals in weightlifting at the 2017 Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games in Ashgabat. Photo: AFP
Cikamatana's hometown of Levuka was for a long time the home of Fijian weightlifting but she was reluctant to take up the sport when first approached by coach Joe Vueti.
"Back in 2012 when I was first asked if I wanted to do weightlifting, I said 'no, it's a men's sport'," Cikamatana recalled.
"He said 'no, my niece is competing at the 2012 Olympics in London'. So I stayed up in early morning just to watch her compete and that kind of changed my mind.
"The second time they asked me, I went to my dad and he agreed and here I am. I have never looked back."
The niece was Maria Liku, one of a band of Fijian weightlifters that Vueti coached to success until he fell out with the national federation and set up his own body.
Cikamatana also fell out with the national federation after they tried to replace the Australian coach, Paul Coffa, who had guided her to the 2018 Commonwealth gold.
Steven Kari and coach Paul Coffa after his win at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games. Photo: RNZ Pacific/Vinnie Wylie
She had offers to represent other countries but elected to go to Australia and work under the guidance of Coffa and his wife Lilly, an international weightlifting judge.
"We chose Australia because it was part of the Commonwealth and it was closer to home where my parents are," Cikamatana said.
"I'm happy and grateful for the opportunity that they gave me to shine. Shine the light that was once burned."
Australia has already reaped rewards with Cikamatana retaining her Commonwealth title in the 'green and gold' in 2022 despite a leg injury that plagued her throughout the COVID pandemic.
Now fully fit, she will head to Paris with a genuine chance of giving Australia its first Olympic weightlifting medal since 1996 after keeping alive her dream for more than a decade.
"Half of it is me wanting to achieve that goal, but half is my coach Paul Coffa and Lilly Coffa, the best dynamic duo that you could have asked for," she said.
"I'm the luckiest athlete to be with them and to be where I am today. All thanks to them."
-This article was first published by Reuters.