When Andi Johnson steps behind a barbell with plates on each end, she thinks about her next movements like an optimization problem.
“The goal is to perform the movement while lifting as heavy as possible,” Andi, a mathematician at heart and Sandia computer scientist by day, said. “The barbell has to move in one fluid motion along a particular pathway, accelerating at certain points, to optimize the motion so I can lift the most weight.
“It’s this beautiful blend of physical movement, math and the theory behind it.”
Kismet
A lifelong athlete, Andi discovered Olympic weightlifting in graduate school while playing rugby.
“Another player on the rugby team asked me if I did Olympic weightlifting, and when I said no, they said they thought I would be good at it,” Andi said. “It was random, but they ended up being right.”
Olympic weightlifting consists of two movements: the snatch and the clean and jerk. The snatch involves lifting a barbell from the ground to overhead in one smooth motion with a wide grip. The clean and jerk is a two-part lift where the barbell is first raised from the ground to the shoulders, the clean, and then pushed overhead, the jerk, in a quick, powerful movement.
Andi fell in love right away and soon traded her rugby jersey for a lifting belt.
“As someone who had always played team sports, I competed with others toward a common goal, and I loved that,” Andi said. “But weightlifting was this new challenge where I was competing with myself. It was hard but also really cool to see what I was capable of.”
The accident
Andi continued to get stronger, hitting new personal records and competing in several Olympic weightlifting competitions around the country.
She was set to compete in the American Open Series Finals in December 2024, a highlight of her career, but a week before the competition, she was hit by a semitruck.
“The day of the accident, I was in such great shape. I had just hit a new PR and was feeling ready and excited to compete,” Andi said. “This was something I had been working towards for three years.”
Andi and her boyfriend, a fellow Olympic weightlifter, were driving back to New Mexico from Portland over the Thanksgiving holiday when they encountered car trouble in Idaho.
“We were pulled over on the side of the road waiting for a mobile mechanic when this semitruck hauling two trailers swerved, jackknifed and slammed into us, obliterating our truck,” Andi said. “I got thrown around pretty badly and suffered a major concussion and a lower back injury.”
While Andi acknowledges that she and her boyfriend were lucky, coming to terms with going from the best shape of her life to starting over has been hard.
A new competition
“I wasn’t able to lift for six weeks, and when I started again, I had to start simple just the barbell and maybe some squats,” Andi said. “Before the accident, I felt so strong. I could lift this weight like it was nothing, and now it feels so heavy.
“I’ve had to give myself a lot of grace and understanding that it’s going to take time to get back to where I was.”
And Andi is getting there. As of our interview, she was able to lift about 85% to 90% of what she could before.
Currently, her goal is to qualify for this year’s American Open Series Finals, and from there, she says she wants to go as far as she can.
“I love competing and being up there on the platform,” Andi said. “Weightlifting is often associated with masculinity, but as a woman, I have found it incredibly empowering.”
As Andi rebuilds her strength, she’s in a new competition with herself, her setback being a new factor in her optimization problem.
So as she steps behind her barbell with a little less weight on each end, Andi takes a deep breath, grants herself permission to not be where she was before, and moves the barbell in one fluid motion along that particular pathway, accelerating at certain points, optimizing the motion so she can lift as much weight as she can right now. And she trusts that when her body’s ready, it will be more.