England's Sarah Davies, who won a weightlifting gold at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham this week, left the world of beauty contests to embark on an athletic journey.
Davies won titles like Miss West Yorkshire and Miss Leeds. She also did weightlifting alongside pageants.
She told The Telegraph in an interview that pageants became "more of a hobby" for her when she began succeeding in weightlifting.
Davies said he also continued to participating in pageants to promote body positivity. In school, she had been bullied for her "muscly" appearance.
“I was actually happier in my body than I’d ever been, yet I was more muscly than I’d ever been and that was the thing I used to be insecure about,” she told The Telegraph. “That’s why I carried on doing the pageantry stuff because it put me out there as a role model to another 12-year-old girl somewhere in the world.”
Davies' weightlifting journey has not been an easy one. She settled at the second spot in three major events, The Independent reported.
At one point, she was also suspended from the British weightlifting squad for her discriminatory remarks about a fellow athlete, according to the newspaper.
With the 2022 Commonwealth Games, she has broken her silver streak.
Davies won gold by lifting 229 kilograms. Canada's Alexis Ashworth took the silver medal with 214 kgs, while India's Harjinder Kaur took home the bronze with 212 kgs.
Davies told The Independent she learnt lessons from the "tough phase" of her career.
“I’ve learned my lesson and we go from there. I used the time (since mid-April) to train myself, as there were no domestic competitions in that period," she added.
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