Earlier this year, First Coast News spoke with Caden Cahoy, a weightlifter from Mandarin who was just one lift away from qualifying for the 2024 Paris Olympics."I actually had five or six people reach out to me after seeing the story on the news," said Cahoy, who is a weightlifting coach and the owner of Jacksonville Weightlifting."They liked what we were doing and wanted to stop by.
Cahoy noted that the sport's popularity is not only increasing, but Florida is also producing Olympic-caliber weightlifters.Juliana Mannino joined Cahoy's gym a year ago after being introduced to weightlifting by her friend, Haven. "She was just super strong, and I was jealous of her," Mannino said."I wanted to be that strong, so I decided to do it with her.""I love the way it makes me feel. I'm so much happier, my stress levels are lower, and I just feel healthier overall," she said.
In her first year of training, Mannino was selected to compete at the national weightlifting competition for her age division, an accomplishment she did not expect to achieve so soon.The success of athletes like Mannino is what Cahoy envisioned when he opened Jacksonville Weightlifting. "Good coaching talent brings in good athletic talent, so that's where we're at," Cahoy said."We've got a lot of absolute studs here who are going to make a name for themselves and the city of Jacksonville soon."WTLV would like to send you push notifications about the latest news and weather.