Hamilton weightlifter Xavier Tiffany seizes opportunity to represent New Zealand internationally

Xavier Tiffany, 19, is fundraising to go to Cuba for the International Weightlifting Foundation's Grand Prix I. Photo / Supplied

Hamilton teenager Xavier Tiffany discovered a passion for weightlifting in 2021 — two years later he is breaking New Zealand records and picking up an opportunity to represent the country on the international stage.

The 19-year-old is working hard and fundraising to attend the International Weightlifting Foundation (IWF) Grand Prix 1 in Cuba, an Olympic qualifier event, after lifting a combined total of 305kg, a New Zealand junior record, at the Auckland Weightlifting Champs in March.

Xavier has always been a sports ace — he started playing rugby in primary school — but he decided to swap the clean-out for the clean and jerk in his last year of high school, after a weightlifting workshop he attended to stay fit for rugby got him hooked on weights.

“I realised this is pretty fun. I like the individual sport, I like that I can see the work I put in. In rugby, if I don’t put in the work, my team can help me win — or opposite, I can put in lots of work, but the team can still lose,” he says.

After finishing his final year at Hamilton Boys’ High School, Xavier thought about quitting weightlifting to start studying.

“I had tertiary education and a mission from church all lined up, bu ... my old coach, Fe Norton, said to me ‘You could get something with it’. So I decided to put everything on hold for now and fully commit to weightlifting.”

Xavier moved from Hamilton to Te Kauwhata to train with Olympian David Andrew Liti at StrengthHQ gym under coach Tina Ball. It was a big risk, Xavier says, because Covid had put a temporary stop on competitions and he didn’t have a lot of previous competitions under his belt to show he had what it takes.

But taking the risk paid off: since diving into weightlifting head first, Xavier, who competes in the men’s 89kg category, has had a steep career rise.

Hamiltonian Xavier Tiffany, 19, at last year's NZ National Championships. Photo / Supplied

At the New Zealand National Weightlifting Championships last year, he won four titles: New Zealand junior and senior champion in his category, plus overall New Zealand Junior Gold and Senior Gold Sinclair. The latter one, junior competitors usually don’t win.

At the recent Auckland Weightlifting Champs, he won gold in his category, Gold Junior and Silver Senior Sinclair, while not only setting a New Zealand junior total record, but a New Zealand junior snatch record when he lifted 141kg. He also qualified for other international competitions later this year.

However, his personal record — a 270kg trap bar deadlift — Xavier set away from the crowds at his home base in Te Kauwhata.

“I was just watching my training partner [David Liti], I wasn’t even warmed up. He said he’d give me a dollar for every kilo I lift, so I went over to the trap bar he was training with and picked it up.”

Xavier, a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, credits his coach Tina for his achievements but also feels he had a lot of help from above.

“I lift for God and all my strength comes from [him]. I pray before every training and every competition.”

While Xavier is happy about his competition results so far, he is most proud of the ones people usually don’t see.

“I am most proud of never giving up. People told me to just do rugby because there is no money in weightlifting and it’s a hard sport to get into, most people start when they are very young,” he says.

“I will never forget the first time I cried during training. It was when I just started. I cried because it was very hard mentally and physically — I was training so hard, I got a bloody nose. I look back on that sometimes, thinking that Xavier there got me to where I am now.”

He is one step away from his lifetime goal: to represent New Zealand in a sport at top level.

Xavier Tiffany,19, with one of his biggest fans, his dad Elliot Tiffany who was farewelling Xavier in March as he flew to Canberra for a week-long training camp at the Australian Institute of Sport, to which the leading young lifters in Oceania were invited. Photo / Supplied

The IWF’s Grand Prix 1 in Cuba will be Xavier’s first international competition, but definitely not his last because he is already eyeing future Commonwealth and Olympic Games.

His hope for those competitions: “to set more New Zealand records”.

One of Xavier’s biggest fans is his dad Elliot. “I am very proud,” Elliot says. “He is kicking butt, but he is so humble. I can’t count the amounts of times he is at the gym by himself, committing to weightlifting all over again. I couldn’t do it.”

Weightlifting is a minority sport in New Zealand and Xavier is trying to fundraise $12,000 for the four-week trip himself. Prior to the competition, he will train alongside Commonwealth Games and Olympic weightlifters in the United States.

To find out more or to donate, go to Xavier’s givealittle page online.