Meliah Motchman is a powerlifter from Victoria who shone during the competition at the Special Olympics BC Summer Games held in Prince George July 10 to 12 simply because of her undeniable enthusiasm.
There were more than 900 athletes with intellectual disabilities who competed in 10 sports at the Games that is a qualifier to go to the Special Olympics Canada Games in 2026 in Medicine Hat, AB.
Meliah, a powerhouse who showed off her guns, roared her way through her squats, bench press and deadlifts, engaging the CN Centre crowd with her enthusiasm.
She is a standout athlete that carries everyone along with her up those stairs as she approaches the weights.
“Let’s go! Let’s do this! Yeah!” Meliah shouted while posing just ahead of her lifts.
Jason Klaus is Meliah’s coach and he owns Victoria Barbell, the gym six athletes train out of on a regular basis.
“We train all year and I don’t charge anything we just run the program for free,” Jason explained.
He got started training Special Olympics athletes about seven years ago.
Meliah and another athlete, Lisa Newell, used to be a swimmers who wanted to get stronger for their sport, Jason explained.
“Then they both said they wanted to do powerlifting instead and ever since then they have been powerlifting with me twice a week,” Jason said.
“Meliah’s been doing really great recently. Her bench has really taken off. She was stuck at 85 pounds for a year it seemed like and she did 110 today.”
Jason said Meliah is a very vocal athlete.
“She likes to put on a show to get the crowd involved,” Jason said. “And she always lightens up the gym whenever she lifts.”
Meliah said she likes all three events, squats, bench press and deadlift.
“I love to get the crowd going,” Meliah said.
“She was a little shy at first,” Jason said.
“But then I was good after that,” Meliah said.
“I gotta focus all the time.”
During bench press Meliah said it’s important to take the weight down slowly and then push it up fast.
“Jason taught me that,” Meliah said.
This is Meliah’s first time coming to Prince George.
“This has been great,” Meliah said with a grin on her face.
For Jason his involvement with Special Olympics started when he met one of the athletes, Dennis Monchamp, about seven years ago.
“It really just started with him and then it just snowballed from there into what it is today,” Jason said.
Altogether there were 10 powerlifters from Region 6, which encompasses Vancouver Island, and that kept Jason busy during the competition.
As coach, Jason made the decision on what the athlete would lift.
“So I was out front running attempts just because I have the most powerlifting experience and then I had two other coaches running warmups behind the scenes so we had everything synchronized to move smoothly,” Jason explained the process.
“Everyone was doing amazing during the competition and had a great meet,” Jason said.
“Our biggest standout athlete is Dennis and he’s been with me since the beginning and our new rising stars I would say are Lidia and Allie White, who are sisters and they started with me last year. They both are looking like they will get on the Canadian team because they are going to win today and I am sure they will win Nationals and make it onto Team Canada to go to the Worlds in Chile in 2027.”
Shirley Bond, Special Olympics BC Summer Games Director of Public Relations, took in the powerlifting on Friday morning.
“It is such an amazing experience to see athletes who work hard and train,” Bond said.
“This is the first summer games since pre-COVID and so to have the athletes here in Prince George and see them working hard to do a personal best, seeing how excited families are cheering on their athlete, seeing our community respond to them with such care and support is really heartwarming and I am just so proud of our community and I am so proud of these athlete, coaches and everyone involved with Special Olympics.”
