Originally on Thestar.com
Maya Laylor is a shy, soft-spoken teenager with a rather dainty handshake.
But once the weightlifter wraps her pink fingernails around a bar she can throw more weight above her head than NHL hockey players who would loom like giants beside her.
Soon after the Winter Lift, I had received email after email from the Share newspaper which is Canada’s largest ethnic newspaper, The Toronto Star, and CBC news. They all wanted to interview me and hear about my story as a young and upcoming female Olympic weightlifter. The Ward and Al Show on SiriusXM Satellite Radio also contacted me and asked if I will be able to talk on their show this coming...
Usually I have to lose weight for my weigh-ins, but this time I actually had to gain weight for this year’s Junior Canadian Championships in Winnipeg for the 75kg weight class. As a strategic move, our team’s head coach decided to place me in that category the night before the competition (I’m usually a 69kg competitor and 75kg is the next class up). At that time, my weight was 69.5kg and the...
When CBC contacted me and said they want to interview me for a film they were making called “The New Upcoming Trailblazers” for Our Toronto, I was ecstatic! I couldn’t believe CBC wanted to interview me and feature my story in their black history special airing on February 28! So many things were running through my mind. Surprisingly though, it wasn’t that bad having a huge camera shadow me for...
Three years ago, Maya Laylor took up her father’s suggestion to try weightlifting at a competitive level. Just 16 at the time and still in high school, the teenager figured she had nothing to lose. She loves exercising and would often use Clance Laylor’s downtown gym to work out. “I used to work out at home with kettlebells,” she said. “When my dad asked me one day if I wanted to be a high...
It was a fun experience in Winnipeg at the 2015 Canadian Junior Championship. I represented the Ontario team and was able to come home with the gold!
