Campbell 'working hard' to open gym that can 'inspire'

BBC News

25-04-2025

Great Britain's record-breaking weightlifter Emily Campbell says she is planning to open a dedicated strength-training gym to try to "inspire" more people to take up the sport.The 30-year-old first spoke of her desire to open a gym after she claimed an Olympic bronze medal in the women's +81kg category at the 2024 Paris Games.Since claiming that second Olympic medal - having won silver at the Tokyo Games - Campbell has made history as the first British weightlifter to win five consecutive European titles.She collected her latest gold medal in the +87kg category in Chisinau, Moldova, on Monday and by Wednesday said she was looking for a venue to set up her sporting venture in her home city of Nottingham."My big aim is to get a strength gym opening in Nottingham sometime soon," Campbell told BBC East Midlands Today. "I'm working really hard in the background to get the wheels in motion. "I definitely need some support from Nottingham in finding a premises. So if there is anybody out there in the council that could help me out that would be fantastic."
When Campbell made history as the first British woman to win an Olympic weightlifting medal at the Tokyo Games in 2021, she did so helped by the support of the community she grew up in.The efforts of friends and family who spent years helping her raise money to train and compete when funding was scarce, before her breakthrough success in Japan catapulted her to sporting stardom, is something that continues to drive her."It feels like I have given a present back to everyone in my community that helped me out and believed in me when maybe the wider world didn't," said Campbell."It still means the world to me."While establishing herself as one of Britain's finest ever weightlifters has been Campbell's way of repaying the faith put in her, she is now looking to use the profile her collection of Olympic, Commonwealth Games and European medals has given her to give back.Campbell has long used the sport she has conquered, and the attention it has brought, as a way to promote body positivity.Running a gym in the city she was raised in is how she now wants to make a direct impact on people's lives.Making it a "humble facility" that is "accessible to everyone" - from beginners to those looking to advance in the sport - is her ambition."I hope people watch our sport and see that you can be 45kg and 4ft 11in, or be like me, nearly 6ft and 130kg, and you can still perform to a high level," said Campbell. "There is a weight category for everybody in our sport and I think that definitely inspires more people to realise they fit in a lot more than they think they do."