By: Kendra Rettig

Hands tired and full of calluses, Alexie Fair takes a deep breath and slowly approaches the barbell. Fair, a sophomore at the University of Oregon, programs and coaches the Olympic weightlifting program, “Lift Like a Girl”. Her passion for the all-female sport is shown through her firm personality, making sure her clients push themselves beyond what they thought was possible. Not only does she run the program but is an inspiring Olympic weightlifter herself. Her coworker, Alex, describes her as “the only woman in the group of coaches and she deals with a lot of our sh** without complaining. She is the most driven out of all of us and has the most amazing work ethic.”

In high school Fair was highly involved with sports. She was on the all-female golf team and practiced the sport since the seventh grade. This was something that consumed her life mentally and physically, but it was the mental aspect of the sport that made her so passionate about it. Her self-driven character pushed her to excellence making her plan, from the beginning of high school, to play golf at the collegiate level achievable. Fair received several scholarship offers and full ride opportunities to a handful of universities, making her dream a reality. But after competing for five years the mental stress of the game became too much, golf was not something she wanted to pursue after graduating.

Fair needed something to keep her physically apt and to test herself; but, not to the extent that golf did. This is where she found Crossfit and within that Olympic weightlifting. Her godmother, Joanie, introduced her to the sport and she immediately fell in love with the high intensity training. The sport and her coach inspired her to get certified to teach Crossfit and Olympic weightlifting at school, “when I came up to Oregon they needed a women’s coach so that’s how I got thrown into it. So, when I started coaching that was all I was coaching just women all the time. That was something I took to really easily especially being someone who played sports and loved to work out. I wanted to motivate other girls to do the same.”

Fair worked rigorously to get to where she is today. She has grown a lot in the past few years mentally, physically, and is proud of her accomplishments. She never would have imagined that she would be where she is today, coaching and competing at such young age. She hopes schools are inspired to implement programs like “Lift Like a Girl” so women have the opportunity to participate in them. Recently, Fair qualified for the American Open in Las Vegas, “we’ll see what happens.”