Two local athletes have returned home with a lot more hardware in tow.

Taylor Babb of Arlington and Connor Callaway of Collierville both competed in the 2023 USA Weightlifting National Championships. The championships took place Saturday, June 24 to Sunday, July 2 in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

In the women’s Under 23 category, Babb took home three gold medals: one as the national champion (best lifter) and one each in the snatch (90kg) and clean and jerk (109 kg) categories.

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In the men’s Under 23 category, Callaway won three silver medals: one as the second overall competitor in his weight class and one each in snatch (100kg) and clean and jerk (128 kg).

Babb, 22, was introduced to weightlifting via CrossFit workouts. She’s also a nursing major at the University of Memphis.

On what best prepared her for the nationals, she credited her “really great support system,” adding that her family is “always within reach” whenever she’s in need.

She continued: “Friends that are always having my back and the teammates that are with me every day when I train. And then I have a good coach who does all my programming, and he always follows up on how I’m feeling.”

Callaway, 21, is a computer science major at the University of Tennessee Chattanooga. He’s been training in competitive weightlifting for more than a year.

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“My coach definitely prepared me well for this competition,” Callaway said. “He is in charge of all the programming and I communicate with him on a daily basis on what I should be doing outside of weightlifting as well, including my diet and mobility.”

Both weightlifters attribute much of their successful preparation to Tom Combs, who serves as head coach of Never Quit Barbell, an Olympic weightlifting club located in Arlington Fitness.

Babb and Callaway have been with Never Quit Barbell since February 2022 and January 2023, respectively.

Combs has been with the club for nearly three years. 

On what training can look like for the medal-winning weightlifters, Combs said, “Well, it consists of a pretty rigorous five days a week, multi-hour workout sessions.

“... But (Babb and Callaway) are different in kind of where they are and their strengths and things they need to work on. So each of them would have a specialized programming that best fits them, to prepare them for the days and weeks leading up to the national event.

“You can’t treat everyone the same, you have to kind of get to know them and you have to understand their schedules and dynamics, and being able to keep them mentally focused on the bad days, you know, when they didn’t meet expectations of what they were gonna live to.”

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After their recent wins, both Callaway and Babb have their minds set on their future weightlifting goals.

“Well, I hope to take weightlifting as far as I can,” Callaway said. “What that may look like I’m not sure yet, but I mean, I’d love to be one of the top contenders in nationals soon, and eventually break out onto the international scene.”

“Next year, I’m hoping to win senior nationals, which is every age group, so I’m trying to win like the whole adult nationals,” Babb said. “And then if I win that, then maybe in the future, I want to make an international team and maybe travel to a different country and compete for USA Weightlifting.”