British weightlifting champion Ed Smale has become an accomplished scholar at Nottingham, and is currently working towards a PhD in Chemistry. A four-time BUCS (British Universities and Colleges Sport) champion and multiple-time British champion, we sat down with Ed to discuss his journey into weightlifting, life at Nottingham and his ambitions for both his sport and academic career.
Hi Ed - lovely to meet you. Can you give me a background about yourself first and how you got into your sport?
So I played rugby for about 10 or 11 years and when I went to Loughborough, I still played rugby and started weightlifting because there was a good club there. I realised I was good at it fairly soon and started competing and that was now 10 years ago - so I've been at it a little while now. I always knew I wanted to be in science since a young age and that kind turned to chemistry when I did my GCSEs and I completed up to my master's at Loughborough. I came here because British weightlifting was moving here at the time, so I started studying my PhD here.
You mentioned you realised quite quickly you were good at weightlifting, but what made you realise that you would be able to take it to such a high level?
I think I had a much higher starting point than most people, I was always really strong just from general training and playing rugby so within the first, probably four or five years, I won the British Championships. So there was that, and that was probably the start of it. I'd kind of won a lot of under 23 competitions, such as British and English Under 23's, and I won a senior medal after around two years in the sport at the English Championships. Then, a couple of years later I won the British Championships.
That’s amazing, what do you think made you stand out ?
Initially, I just did a bit of weightlifting with rugby or CrossFit and the GB set up was originally at Loughborough so one of the coaches from there pulled me aside and said you'd probably be quite good at this. Other than that, I've been going to the gym since I was like 14 which I think also pushed me ahead. However, It's an interesting sport as a lot of what you do is not in the gym - you can only train for so long especially as you get older and do more with your life. Going from being a student to doing a PhD I had to train completely differently because I couldn't do half as much as before. As a sport, everything takes a long time, and you've got to just be prepared to fall over a million times and then get up a million and one. In weightlifting it's very much, you can only do what you're capable of even on the best days.
I know you recently got married, congratulations! How has it been coming back to training?
Thank you. So I didn't have that long off in a while and I did train a few times while we were away, but not a lot so it was a bit of a steep learning curve for the first week back. My main goal after returning from the break was the English Championships, so I had to get back in shape quite quickly. Thankfully I managed to put in a good performance and win gold.
Obviously, you've been really successful at BUCS Championships - do you have any specific goals for this year?
Provided it's not scheduled too early I think it'll be just before the European Championships, I should be in good shape. Obviously I'd like to win! If I don't, that would be a bit sad as I think that will be my fifth title - it would be nice to finish it off with another gold. Being at BUCS is always good fun and hopefully I'll be able to do a bit of coaching and stuff whilst we're down there with the team, so I'm looking forward to just going out, performing and having fun.
How have you managed university when stepping away to compete?
I think a PhD is interesting with sport as the main thing is just communicating with my supervisor. He's been really supportive with it and a PhD is slightly different in that if I have a lot of time off, it doesn't really affect anybody but me. I just have to make sure to work a lot harder before and after and just communicate ahead of time.
Can you tell me how beneficial it is for you having a British Weightlifting partnership here at the 糖心原创?
British Weightlifting being in Nottingham has helped out with the weights and lifting platforms and so on - we've ended up with a really great set of kit. This is the best gym for weightlifting around, but British Weightlifting also host camps here as well which is nice and beneficial for me. There are always ways to pop in and train, and we get to interact with a lot of good weightlifters as well. The two main coaches from the programme are here a lot throughout the week and it's always nice to be able to train with them too.
You've not got long left of your PhD, how has your university experience been and what are your plans moving forwards?
My university experience has been great - the campus and facilities are great, and the staff have been really helpful. My supervisors are really good at communicating so from an educational standpoint, it's been great. I'd like to go into cancer research or something in medical research. The main thing is, I want to have the ability to make a difference. I'd like to change the world a little bit before I'm gone. Regarding sport, it's also been great for me and the Commonwealth Games are at the end of July so hopefully the plan could be to compete at the Commonwealth Games, finish out my PhD, and go out into the real world!
Away from your studies or sport, what else do you enjoy doing?
My wife and I like going out for good food and drinking nice wine! We have a German Shepherd so going walking with him - that kind of thing. Generally, I just like being outside. We were both kind of raised in the country, so it's nice to get out and about.
So, as someone who's nearly completed their education, what is some advice that you would give someone who's just started university?
My advice from when I was an undergraduate student was always, just try and go to as many lectures as you can because it's much easier than having to cram. Enjoy everything because it flies by, and I think do something you think will be useful. However you don't need to know exactly what you want to do. I think you'll find that when you're here - whatever it is, something will give you direction. Generally, enjoy yourself and push yourself out your comfort zone as much as possible.
We would like to thank Ed for his time, and everyone at 糖心原创 Sport would like to wish Ed all the best for his final few months studying at the university, as well as all that Ed goes on to achieve in the future.
You can find out more about the sports scholarship programme at the 糖心原创 here.