{"id":821687,"date":"2026-07-24T21:43:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-24T21:43:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/821687\/"},"modified":"2026-07-24T21:43:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T21:43:14","slug":"hani-watson-australian-para-powerlifter-wins-bronze-at-glasgow-2026-commonwealth-games","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/821687\/","title":{"rendered":"Hani Watson: Australian para powerlifter wins bronze at Glasgow 2026 Commonwealth Games"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Glasgow: Para powerlifter Hani Watson is familiar with pain. So much so, she\u2019s given it a nickname.<\/p>\n

\u201cI call it Nigel and Nigel is always there,\u201d she laughed.<\/p>\n

The para athlete was born with bilateral metaphyseal dysplasia, which bowed her tibia and femur bones and means she has to live with \u201c24\/7 bone cracking pain\u201d. In the past year, Watson has had multiple surgeries on her legs to help deal with it.<\/p>\n

\"HaniHani Watson wins bronze for Australia.Getty Images<\/p>\n

But on Friday evening in Glasgow, Watson, a bronze medallist at Birmingham in 2022<\/a>, banished \u201cNigel\u201d to secure bronze again with a 147-kilogram lift in front of a roaring crowd at the SEC Armadillo.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s still very surreal,\u201d she said afterwards, proudly wearing her medal and a beaming smile.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a hard training session, hard sort of getting to where we are today. I didn\u2019t actually think I was going to hit the numbers that coach asked … but I just blocked it out.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t want to know, and I just went balls out and just hit it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AnAn emotional Watson after the event.Getty Images<\/p>\n

Watson started the competition well, easily clearing her starting weight of 140kg and briefly occupying the top spot on the leaderboard before Nigerian champion Folashade Oluwafemiayo lifted an extraordinary 165kg, setting a Commonwealth Games record.<\/p>\n

Watson stayed steady, sitting on the bench with her eyes closed before letting out a warrior-like cry on her second attempt to clear 144kg and followed it with third lift of 147kg to secure third place. Dusting the chalk off her hands, she embraced her coach while the Aussies in the crowd leapt to their feet.<\/p>\n

Oluwafemiayo powered through a 175kg lift to set a world record and clinch gold, while Nigerian compatriot Rita Ferdinard rounded out the podium with a 158kg lift for silver<\/p>\n

\"HaniHani Watson with her bronze medal at the 2022 Commonwealth Games. AP<\/p>\n

Strength runs in Watson\u2019s blood. Her father Charlie was a bodybuilder who used to bicep-curl his daughter when she was younger. He would often tell Watson to \u201cfocus on your superpower\u201d and bought her a gym membership when she was 10 years old.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

He died when she was just 17 years old.<\/p>\n

Her mother died in 2023,<\/a> and did not get a chance to see Watson compete in the 2024 Paralympics.<\/p>\n

Related Article\"Liz<\/a><\/p>\n

Watson said she thought of her parents right before she lifted the bar.<\/p>\n

\u201cI sat the edge of that bench, and I said what my mum said to me, \u2018You got this darling\u2019. You know, I said to my mum and I said to my dad, \u2018Help me lift this bar\u2019 and they did exactly that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Watson continued to reflect on her parents\u2019 legacy and influence on her life.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe in having that spirit, that energy, that mana, my culture that\u2019s within me, the Australian spirit and just sitting there and calming myself down and listening to that internal voice,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs kids we don\u2019t listen to our parents, but I\u2019m listening to them now. And they told me, \u2018This is your superpower, this is what you can do, this is what you need to focus on\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Queenslander\u2019s Birmingham win broke Australia\u2019s 16-year medal drought in the sport.<\/p>\n

She became the first Australian woman to medal in the event, and two years later qualified for the Paralympics in Paris.<\/p>\n

Watson has undergone at least a dozen operations over the past decade including double osteotomies on both legs \u2013 a surgical procure involving the cutting or reshaping of bones.<\/p>\n

But in July 2025, Watson posted on social media telling her followers her pain had increased over the last six months, forcing her to \u201csedate and elevate\u201d and rest, spending time with her dogs.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\u201cNot the life I saw happening, and it makes me hella nervous\u2026 but I get to still do something quite unique,\u201d she posted.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd on the bright side, I don\u2019t need legs to bench press!\u201d<\/p>\n

Related Article\"Australia<\/a><\/p>\n

After several surgeries and some time off, Watson was back and in April she was named Australia women\u2019s heavyweight representative for the Commonwealth Games.<\/p>\n

She won\u2019t stop at winning bronze. Watson has the LA Paralympics in her sights and wants the Australian public and the world to keep backing para powerlifting.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to keep people excited about para powerlifting,\u201d she said. \u201d It\u2019s a very, very hard sport to do \u2026 So that\u2019s a big dream of mine.<\/p>\n

\u201cGetting to LA is another one, and then obviously back in Brisbane 2032, and ensuring that we\u2019re setting up for a very good Para and Olympic Games.\u201d<\/p>\n

Get around our Commonwealth Games coverage<\/p>\n

Follow our coverage of the Commonwealth Games with live blogs covering every moment of the action from 6pm AEST daily.<\/p>\n

News, results and expert analysis from the weekend of sport sent every Monday. Sign up for our Sport newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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\"HannahHannah Kennelly<\/a> is an award-winning sports reporter and Formula 1 writer at The Age.Connect via email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":821688,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-821687","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/821687","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=821687"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/821687\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/821688"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=821687"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=821687"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=821687"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}