Heavylifting: Mother of 9 writes books, heals sick, busts stereotypes

If there is one thing Wendie Edwards doesn't want to be, it's stereotyped.

Sure the BYU graduate, a former head cheerleader who grew up to marry her college sweetheart and have nine children, might seem easy to classify.

But try to force her into that mold, and the champion arm wrestler, power lifter and Olympic lifter is likely to make you cry for your own mama. (Just ask some of those football players she used to humiliate in lunchtime arm wrestling tournaments at her high school in Edmonds, Wash.)

Edwards' story is about as far from ordinary as a little girl can get, starting with the fact she grew up performing acrobatics on trampolines with her family. Once she started having her own children, the shows continued, only now they included three generations.

"We performed at the Stadium of Fire in 2003," she said. "After that, my kids said, 'We want a normal life. We're retiring.' "

That decision put Edwards on a new path, one that would lead her to a whole new sport, a handful of gold medals and the opportunity to shatter any stereotypes about Mormon mothers.

Without the benefit of training for performances, the 43-year-old nurse and author quickly realized she was losing the battle with her body.

"I had been active all my life," said Edwards, whose children range in age from 6 to 23. "I didn't have any goals. I got over 200 pounds at one point and I thought, 'This is so sad!' I have the knowledge; I have the strength; I can change this."

She'd been dragging herself to aerobics classes, but found working out a bit boring.

"Instead of just working out to lose weight, I wanted to work out to accomplish a goal," she said.

The goal she chose was, well, like Edwards, a little unorthodox: Enter the Utah Summer Games and compete in arm wrestling, power lifting and Olympic weightlifting.

It even surprised her husband.

"He said, 'You're too busy!' " she said, laughing during an early-morning workout last week. "He asked me to wait a year. So I did. It was like an engagement."

The minute Edwards could sign up for the Utah Summer Games, she did.

"I entered as many things as I thought I was good at," she said. "We have always known I was strong."

Finding an outlet for that strength — other than bench-pressing her children until about age 12 — had been elusive until this last year.

"I had no idea what (Olympic weightlifting) was," she said. "It's so technical, so different, and that's when I got in touch with Dave (Chiu)."

Chiu, an Olympic lifter himself, agreed to meet with Edwards and give her a few pointers as she attempted to train for sports she knew very little about. She told him what she planned to do at the Summer Games. He explained that power lifting and Olympic lifting were two very different sports.