Despite the fairytale name, there’s no doubt endurance weightlifter Lady Cindy Rella is tough.
She brought home eight gold medals from the kettlebell lifting world championships in Portugal this month, breaking two world records in the women’s masters division along the way.
Lady Cindy Rella has just returned to Melbourne from Portugal, where she competed in the World Kettlebell Championships.Credit:Justin McManus.
Those medals joined the nearly 80 – won in karate, boxing and ironman contests – that cover the walls of her studio in Melbourne’s south-east. But she says winning doesn’t motivate her.
“It’s about being the best I can be for myself,” she says of the little-known sport of kettlebell lifting, which involves hauling one or two cannonball-shaped weights to set positions as many times as possible within set times.
Away from the weightlifting platform, her tough image has led to her playing a prisoner in the Australian drama Wentworth for seven seasons.
“I didn’t know if it was the image I wanted,” Rella says. “It was a brave moment because acting is not really my jam.”
Lady Cindy Rella has two world records for kettlebell lifting and says being her own version of brave is her biggest goal.Credit:Justin McManus
“Be your own brave” is a message scrawled on chalkboards and signs all over her Cheltenham fitness studio because, she explains, “everyone’s brave is different”.
She says her biggest achievements have included competing on the world stage and saving her business during lockdown. She also feels achievement from simply starting the day some mornings, she says.
Rella, changed her surname about a decade ago when a divorce, memories of bullying and a feeling of being different weighed on her mental health.
The change marked a shift towards becoming who she is now, Rella says, but previous experiences with dancing, karate and endurance sports gave her the rhythm and resilience to lift kettlebells.
“Kettlebells certainly saved my life,” she says. “I can cry before I go on a platform and then step off a platform as happy as I can be. It just gives you that ‘now’ moment where nothing else matters.”
The sport has a long history in Eastern Europe and is steadily increasing in Australia, according to peak association Girevoy Sport Australia, which says there are now about 340 people involved, up from about 37 four years ago.
The association’s acting president, Cheryl Schneider, says Rella’s inspirational performance and contribution to the sport are “incomparable, especially for Victorian lifters during the lockdowns”.
About 70 per cent of Australia’s kettlebell athletes are women. Rella was among seven women who represented Australia at the world championships this month. “Men are more built for that one-rep max, where women are just built for resilience,” she says.
Although Girevoy Sport is pushing for kettlebell lifting to become an Olympic sport, Rella does not dream of an Olympic medal joining her collection. However, she does want to see the sport expand at an amateur level.
“I think that’s a fantastic sport for anybody,” she says. “I’d love to get some people with disability into the sport and children to grow it because we have some great masters.”
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