Janis Finkelman
Janis Finkelman is a 36 year old female powerlifter who has broken world records in the 123lb weight class (Open Powerlifting, n.d.). Janis is a survivor of anorexia and has been able to overcome hardship throughout her life to achieve the success she has so far in powerlifting. Janis has not been competing on the big-stage for the last few years, as she continues to perfect her technique and grow in weight and strength. She maintains a personal blog on Instagram and trains out of Elite FTS in Ohio, USA.
Janis excels in powerlifting because she is willing to make hard sacrifices in order to achieve great strength. What really sets Janis apart is her embracing a counter-intuitive approach to fitness as a woman, and openly talks about body-positivity and self-acceptance as it relates to the female form in strength sports. Women in sport have often been subjected to sexualization and objectification (Daniels, 2009) and instead of attempting to fit a mold of “what sells” on social media, Janis continues to showcase her non-feminine physique and promotes messages of self-acceptance. Janis has become a role-model to women in strength sports and has been helping to further a movement of women who are proud of their musculature and engage in strength sport not to look a certain way, but to be strong.
Outside of body-positivity, Janis also advocates against sexism and racism in powerlifting. Through her social media accounts, Janis regularly calls out unseemly behavior from individual members/groups/federations alike and continues to press back against bigotry in strength sports.
Another way that Janis shows leadership is by sharing her every-day training videos and discussing the ups-and-downs of lifting. Often on social media, people only share their highlights and upswings and that can lead to a false perception of success and discourage many people for feeling too average. Janis is unashamed to show a poor training session or a missed weight. Janis’ perseverance through hard times makes her a good role model by providing exemplar behavior and how to cope with a hard day.
Daniels, E.
A. (2009). Sex Objects, Athletes, and Sexy Athletes: How Media Representations
of Women
Athletes Can Impact Adolescent Girls and College Women. Journal of Adolescent
Research, 24(4), 399–422. https://doi.org/10.1177/0743558409336748
Open Powerlifting. (n.d.). Janis Finkelman (F). Retrieved from https://www.openpowerlifting.org/u/janisfinkelman
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