Area powerlifter shatters two of her own world records

By Rebecca Bratten Weiss Harrison News-Herald Staff Writer

Champion power lift- er Leah Reichman surpassed her own previous world-record of 880 lbs in the squat-equipped category, when she lifted 953 lbs in April of this year.

At the same competition, the 2023 APF Womens Pro/Am in Cincinnati, Reichman also set a record for lifting a total of 2,055 lbs in one meet, between her deadlift, squat, and bench. This is the biggest total of all time in the world of women’s powerlifting. Prior to this, the record was held by Becca Swanson, whose record for a total in one meet was 2,050.

Reichman grew up in Tuscarawas County where she attended Claymont High School, and also has ties to Harrison County, where she frequently spent her holidays and summers visiting her grandparents Jim and Martha Chaney. She attended the University of Cincinnati, where she studied exercise science. Today, she lives in Cincinnati and coaches high schoolers while working in the healthcare field.

“I’ve always known that I was strong,” Reichman said. “Even as a kid, help- ing out on farms, when we would have to stack wood and clean the barns.”

Reichman was involved in sports in high school, including track and field, and basketball, and often lifted for health and fitness. But she did not get into competitive powerlifting until 2016, when she was 27. “I’ve always been competitive,” she said. “I enjoyed competitive sports in high school, it gave me an outlet.”

Reichman did face some challenges, as a woman competing in a sport that is largely viewed as being male-dominated. She usually trained with men, because “logistically, it makes sense, since I was lifting more.”