Mauis Kikuchi, 57, breaks three world records at Pan Am Masters | News, Sports, Jobs
Loretta Kikuchi poses with her gold medal and trophy after winning her division and being named the grand master lifter at the Pan Am Masters Weightlifting Championships last month. — Courtesy photo
Loretta “Lori” Kikuchi has five grandchildren, ages 2 to 11 years old, but she has no trouble keeping up with all of them.
Kikuchi, a USA Weightlifting level 1 coach who represents HI Performance Athletics gym in Wailuku, traveled to Orlando, Fla., for the 2023 Pan American Masters Championships May 24-28.
All she did there was set three world records for her 55-59 age group/55 kg (121 pounds) weight class. She snatched 58 kilograms (128 pounds) and clean and jerked 72 kg (159 pounds) for a total of 130 kg (287 pounds) — all world bests.
She won her division with the effort, but was also named grand master lifter for the entire meet. She came up short of her hopes at the world meet at the same location in December 2022.
“Oh, I’m really excited, I mean I went there really to make lifts, so it wasn’t my heaviest that I’ve ever done — I wanted to make lifts and get a total in,” Kikuchi said. “Because in December at worlds, I bombed out, I was devastated. So, this one it was like a redemption — winning my age group and overall grand master was even a better redemption.”
Kikuchi, 57, started working out hard in 2009 at a CrossFit gym, but switched to Olympic style weightlifting in 2013 and a year later she began working with Vernon Patao, a two-time U.S. Olympian in weightlifting who bought the facility and started HPA.
“I was coaching the CrossFit side of the gym when (Patao) bought it, but after I was done coaching my class no one wanted to do CrossFit with me, so I just hopped into Olympic lifting,” said Kikuchi, a runner and paddler in her younger days.
After her performance in her last meet, she admitted she was nervous and surprised herself a bit with her record-setting performance last month.
“Yes and no, I was just nervous about bombing out again,” Kikuchi said, adding it was in the “same place, that’s why it was like a flashback when I went there.”
Kikuchi, who works as an educational assistant for special education at Iao Intermediate School, gives large credit to Patao for her success.
“For one thing, if he hadn’t bought the gym I might have not been doing anything,” Kikuchi said, adding that she also learned a bunch from fellow coaches Lawrence Kauhaahaa, Val Patao and Frank Tam.
Kikuchi said she will bring a message to HPA athletes, young and old, after her success.
“I’m hoping that they will look at me as an inspiration for them to go for it, especially with youth nationals coming up,” Kikuchi said.
Bertram Kikuchi, Lori’s husband, is also a big part of her success. He acted as her coach at the Pan Am meet.
“He’s there for me at every meet,” Lori Kikuchi said. “He’s always there. It’s really important — I feel sad if he’s not there. … This one we did really good. He’s always there for me at every single meet.”
* Robert Collias is at rcollias@mauinews.com
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