Single Mom and Powerlifter Tamara Walcott Lost 100 Pounds and Broke the Deadlifting World Record

In case you haven't heard of Tamara Walcott, the single mom and powerlifter who broke the world record for deadlifting 636 pounds, check out her inspirational interview on The Ellen Show. She talks about how she got into powerlifting just three years ago after going through a divorce, and said she weighed almost 450 pounds because she poured herself into her kids and marriage: "I kind of forgot about myself."

"I think powerlifting kind of found me," Walcott told Ellen. She started working out at a powerlifting gym, and said she "fell in love and never left." She lost over 100 pounds in the first year, with bench pressing, deadlifting, and squatting. How does she train? After working a 9-to-5 job, she cooks dinner for her kids, helps with homework, puts them to bed, and then her family comes over so she can train late at night — sometimes she doesn't leave the gym until 11:30 p.m.! She may miss out on a little sleep, but Walcott said, "When you want something bad enough, you sacrifice for it."

When Wolcott broke the record, she didn't realize how big of a deal it was. It was not only important to prove to herself that she could do it (her goal in 2017 was to deadlift 315 lbs), but she showed all the little girls out there, "especially the little Black girls that look like me," that the "impossible is possible." Watch the video above and prepare to be inspired to lift!