Olympic weightlifter. Adaptive World Champion. Veteran. Mom.
Last year, we shared Samantha's story—how a CrossFit gym became her refuge after her military career ended with an MS diagnosis, and how Olympic weightlifting gave her stability when her body felt anything but stable. This time, we wanted to go deeper into what it actually takes to prepare for competition when your baseline shifts constantly, when heat can blur your vision mid-lift, and when simply navigating the warm-up room requires intentional planning.
This is a conversation about mindset, training adaptation, recovery as a non-negotiable, and what it means to show up ready when "ready" looks different every single day.
Who Is Samantha Love?
Q: For those who may not know your story, can you introduce yourself and share what being an Adaptive World Champion means to you?
A: I'm Samantha Love. I'm a veteran, a mom, and an Olympic weightlifter. I didn't grow up lifting at all—I hadn't touched a barbell until I started CrossFit when I was almost 30. What surprised me was how much I loved competing and the weightlifting community. The people, the atmosphere, the shared obsession with chasing small improvements—it felt like home pretty fast.
During the pandemic in 2021, I drifted from CrossFit into Olympic weightlifting and never looked back. The sport is technical and humbling in the best way, and I like that it rewards consistency and execution, not just effort. Staying active also helps me maintain longer stretches of remission with my Multiple Sclerosis, so I treat training as a necessity.
Being an Adaptive World Champion means a lot, especially because international adaptive awards are still relatively new and currently only exist at the Masters level. In 2025, I became the first visually impaired World Champion across two federations. That’s something I’m really proud of, not just as a personal milestone, but as another step toward adaptive athletes being recognized as serious competitors on a real stage, earning real titles.
Q: When a major competition is coming up, what does your mental preparation look like?
A: My mental prep is really about staying flexible without getting sloppy. My life is busy, my training often happens at night, and I've learned that pretending everything will be perfectly controlled just makes me anxious. Instead, I plan for reality—some days will be chaotic, but the goal is to stay consistent anyway.
I rely heavily on my coaches to make that possible. My weightlifting coach, Walt at Rising Tide, and my nutrition coach, Alexa at Cedars Nutrition, help keep the plan realistic and stop me from trying to "make up for" life stress by overreaching. That structure takes a lot of mental pressure off. I'm not carrying every decision alone, and that lets me show up, execute, and trust the process even when my schedule is all over the place.
How Samantha Trains for Olympic Weightlifting
Q: What part of training is most challenging, and what gives you confidence that you're ready?
A: The most challenging part for me is juggling recovery with real life, especially because I train at night. When my schedule gets chaotic, the hard part isn't motivation—it's resisting the urge to "make up" a missed session by stacking days, or pushing when my body is clearly asking for a smarter approach.
The part that gives me the most confidence is when I'm still hitting all my programming and planned percentages despite the busy life. When my openers are moving well, my timing feels consistent, and I'm not relying on a perfect day to hit what I need to hit—that's when I know I'm ready. I want my lifts to feel predictable. If it's boring in training, it's usually great on the platform.
Q: How does your training change as you get closer to a competition?
A: As a major event approaches, my training gets a lot more consistent and structured. Between meets, if I'm being honest, life can get busy and I'll sometimes end up stacking sessions later in the week to make everything fit. But leading into a meet, I'm way more intentional about spacing them out properly and respecting rest days.
That consistency matters for performance, but it also matters for my body. I want to show up feeling fresh and sharp, not fried. So meet prep is when I tighten everything up—better rhythm, better recovery, and fewer "make-up" days.
Q: Did anything change in your training approach in 2025 compared to previous years?
A: 2025 was a big year for me because I moved into a new team, and that transition honestly helped kick off a huge upward shift. Getting settled with Walt at Rising Tide has been a game-changer—once that relationship clicked into place, my lifts started blossoming and the momentum has just kept building.
I also got way more consistent with creatine this year, and that steady consistency helped everything feel more stable when training.
An Adaptive Athlete’s Perspective
Q: As an adaptive athlete, what unique considerations do you keep in mind when preparing for competition?
A: For me, prep starts with the reality that MS is unpredictable, and it can throw curveballs that have nothing to do with motivation or effort. Fatigue, weakness, balance, coordination—it can all shift without much warning. And then there's my vision: I deal with optic neuritis, and with Uhthoff's phenomenon, heat and exertion can make my vision drop even more. I'm also working through additional vision loss and degeneration, which is something we're constantly monitoring and adapting around.
So there's a big practical side to my meet prep. I compete with my eyepatch, I use my white mobility cane when I need it, and I'm intentional about the environment—navigating warm-ups, staying cool, spacing out my energy, and keeping things predictable so I'm not burning extra bandwidth before I even touch the bar. The goal is to remove as many avoidable variables as possible so I can focus on lifting.
Q: How do you adjust when training doesn't go as planned?
A: Communication is everything. If something's off, I tell my coach, and we pivot. We don't pretend it's fine. We talk through what's going on: is it MS fatigue, is it coordination, is it heat making symptoms flare, is my vision doing something new, is it just a normal training day that needs a small adjustment?
Because my vision and my body can change, we've built a rhythm where adapting isn't a panic move—it's just part of the plan. He's so great with that. Sometimes that means simplifying the session, cutting volume, shifting timing, changing the environment, or swapping in a variation that's safer and more productive that day. The main thing is protecting momentum and staying healthy. I don't need every session to be perfect. I need it to be smart, and I need to keep showing up.
Nutrition and Recovery: Fueling Athletic Ambition
Q: What does nutrition and recovery look like for you leading into a competition?
A: Nutrition and recovery are non-negotiable for me, but I have to be so intentional about it. If I don't plan, I'll end up under-fueled, without sleep, and trying to "tough it out," and that never works long-term.
Leading into a meet, I get really consistent with the basics: eating enough protein and carbs to support heavy training, intentional hydration, and sleeping as much as life allows. With MS, recovery matters even more because my body can be unpredictable, so I'm always trying to stack the deck in my favor. The goal is to walk into meet week feeling steady and ready, not depleted and guessing. Meal prep is so important!
Q: Which Blonyx products have been most helpful for you this year?
A: I've been sold on creatine for years, but 2025 was the most consistent I've ever been with it—like actually consistent—and it showed in the results. It's not flashy, but when you take it every day and you're training hard, you feel how much more stable everything becomes.
I also rely on Hydra+, especially because I train at night and hydration is one of the easiest things to let slip when you're running around all day. And the Egg White Protein Isolate has been huge for me for getting protein in without giving me a stomach ache. It's quick to mix, sits well, and helps me stay on track even when meals aren't perfect.
Meet Week and Competition Day
Q: What does the final week before competition look like for you?
A: Physically, the last week is about resting as much as possible. Everything gets more intentional than it already was, and I'm focused on feeling good.
Mentally, I get protective of my energy. I'm big on routines that keep me grounded. I journal leading up to meets, especially the night before, because it helps clear out extra thoughts so they're not bouncing around on competition day. I try really hard not to answer work emails or texts because once I open that door, my brain is immediately in problem-solving mode, and that's not the headspace I need on the platform.
I also reach out to my closest friends for a little hype or meme distraction. That combination—journaling, protecting my focus, and chatting with key people in my life—is how I flip the switch into competition mode.
Logistically, I plan for accessibility from the start: travel details, where I'll be, who's with me, and how I'm navigating crowded spaces. The eyepatch and my white cane are just part of how I move through meet environments, and I like having a plan so I'm not burning energy on avoidable stuff before I even lift. I've started scoping out the back room and practicing a walking route when fewer people are around, so when it's busier I have more confidence in where I'm going.
Q: What goes through your mind when you step up to the bar?
A: When I step up to the bar, a big part of my focus is really practical—I'm listening hard for the "down" signal, because I can't see it, and I can't see the ref's arms waving down when it's time to drop the bar. So I'm locked in on the audio cue while I'm finishing the lift.
And at the same time, I do take in the moment. I can hear the crowd, the cheers, the energy, and it honestly fuels me. Right before I go, I'm telling myself, you've got this lift. I'm not stepping up there hoping it works or living on a prayer. I'm stepping up there expecting to make it, and holding that confidence all the way through the finish.
Looking Forward
Q: What advice would you give to other adaptive athletes preparing for major competitions?
A: My biggest advice to adaptive athletes is: don't wait until you feel "ready" to start competing—just start. Build a plan that fits your life and your body, communicate early and often with your coach, and get comfortable adjusting without treating it like a failure. Adaptation isn't a setback.
I’d also like to add that we need more adaptive athletes in the sport. If you're on the fence, come join us. The community is better when it's bigger, and representation matters. I mean this not in a "feel-good" way, but in a "this creates opportunities" way. The more of us who show up, compete, and take up space on the platform, the harder it gets for adaptive lifting to be treated like an afterthought. You belong here, and the sport is better with you in it.
Q: What are you most excited about in 2026?
A: I'm really excited for Worlds in Greece in 2026. It'll be the first time the international stage takes me outside the U.S., and that feels huge. I love competing, and I'm proud of what I've built here, so getting to take that to a new country and a new environment feels like the next level.
I'm also excited to keep building on the momentum from 2025—refining my lifts, staying consistent, and continuing to push adaptive representation forward at the international level. I also can't wait to finish my PhD!
You can follow Samantha on Instagram, or learn more about her work at Love Neurodiversity Consulting.
That’s all for this week! If you enjoyed reading Samantha' story, head over to the Blonyx Blog for more stories of athletic ambition.
– Train hard!
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