The Commonwealth Games gold medal winning performance of Samoan weightlifter Feagaiga Stowers is being described as a fairy tale after it was revealed she was previously a victim of sexual abuse and violence.
Feagaiga Stowers. Photo: © Copyright Andrew Cornaga / www.photosport.nz Photosport Ltd 2018
Stowers claimed gold in the women's over 90kg division after the favourite, New Zealand transgender athlete Laurel Hubbard withdrew with an elbow injury.
The Samoa Observer reported that several years ago, Stowers took refuge at the Samoa Victims Support Group where she found a way to release her anger through weightlifting.
The group's president Siliniu Lina Chang told the Observer that Stowers' victory was humbling.
"When the news of Samoa's Commonwealth Golden girl Feagaiga reached us, we were humbled by the extent of her determination to rise up, by her resilience to see hope in her talent."
While staying at the group's Campus of Hope, Siliniu said Feagaiga was "not into singing, dancing, sewing or cooking, but through weightlifting, she found a way to release her anger and her sense of hopelessness".
Head coach of the Samoa weightlifting team Tuaopepe Jerry Wallwork said when Stowers first took up weightlifting, she was offered a scholarship to attend a training camp in New Caledonia, and from there had "gone from strength to strength".
"From the 2015 Commonwealth Youth Games in Apia to the 2016 Oceania Weightlifting Championship in Fiji to the Oceania Training Camp in New
Caledonia, Feagaiga's story of rehabilitation has culminated with the Gold Medal at the 2018 Commonwealth Games," Tuaopepe said.
The 17-year-old Stowers said weightlifting had given her a second chance at life.
"I am now known to the world and I am now going to places and traveling the world, it's something that I thought would never happen to me," she told the Observer.