NoDa Arts District: Coach At NoDa Weightlifting Gym Makes Olympic Team

Press release from the NoDa Arts District:

Liz OConnell

July 7, 2021

Caine Wilkes, 33, received word that he made the Olympic weightlifting team in the middle of May, after the team announcement was delayed more than a year because of COVID-19.

Wilkes had one more meet, the Pan American Championship, when COVID-19 forced everything to shut down.

The hope was to use the previous five competitions to qualify, but the International Olympic Committee announced in April 2020 that qualifications would remain open until June 29, 2021.

The year was worth the wait, as Wilkes earned his spot with seven other weightlifters to complete Team USA. This will be the largest team of weightlifters the United States is sending to the Olympic Games since 1996.

But before Tokyo, the team has a pitstop in Honolulu, Hawaii. Because of certain COVID-19 restrictions put in place, the team will be first training in Hawaii.

This year’s Olympics will not be open to foreign spectators, a disappointing announcement for all athletes. Wilkes was making plans for his wife and mother to make the trip to Tokyo, but instead they will head to Hawaii for a sendoff celebration.

Wilkes’s dad was with him when he first began weightlifting in 2000. He was the strength and conditioning coach at Wilkes’s middle school and high school, and weightlifting became an off-season supplement for football training.

“At that point I was just having fun, throwing weights around,” Wilkes said. “I don’t think I ever really thought about making an Olympic team or even thought of the possibility of that. Maybe 8-10 years into the sport, and even at that point it was, ‘Oh, that would be really neat!’ not even thinking that it could be me.”

“It is surreal to think about where I was and where I ended up,” Wilkes said. “…I feel like it’s slowly hitting me, like this is happening…I think right now I’m mostly just excited to be able to compete and I’m sure I’ll have nerves as always, part of competition, but for me it will be mostly just excitement to be on a big stage, the biggest competition stage I’ll probably ever be on.”

This press release was produced by the NoDa Arts District. The views expressed here are the author’s own.