Air New Zealand Dream Seats<\/a> winner, she gets to choose a destination to travel to (Samoa) that will help towards her professional dreams (the Olympics) and the airline covers that cost.<\/p>\nThe enjoyment of weightlifting started around age 11 and it started because of her dad, Joni Nacagilevu. He\u2019s a former weightlifter and also her coach. By the time Nacagilevu was in Year 10, she told her dad she \u201creally wanted to do this\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo we knew she was serious then,\u201d Joni Nacagilevu tells the Herald. \u201cWhen she starts something, she wants to be the best at it … She\u2019s really goal-driven.\u201d<\/p>\n
And disciplined.<\/p>\n
Nacagilevu, the eldest of six sisters, hits the gym at the Nelson Weightlifting Club with her dad at 5am. Then she goes to school \u2013 it\u2019s her last year of it \u2013 while her dad goes to work. At 5.30pm, she returns to the gym for a second training session with another coach.<\/p>\n
For a sport that is mostly solitary and mostly mental, self-belief and confidence become critical. After meeting Solfrid Koanda, Norway\u2019s first female Olympic weightlifting champion, Nacagilevu sent her dad a text: \u201cI\u2019m going to be the next Solfrid\u201d.<\/p>\n
![\"Litia]()
Litia Nacagilevu has been coached by her dad, Joni Nacagilevu, since she was a child. Photo \/ Dean Purcell<\/p>\n
Nacagilevu says she\u2019s allowed to have wild nights, but she chooses to say no. <\/p>\n
\u201cI can have all the fun I want after [I finish] school, but just for now I need to … focus,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n
That\u2019s not to say she never sees her friends, however. She\u2019s learned the hard way what happens when she doesn\u2019t.<\/p>\n
For Years 11 and 12, Nacagilevu opted for online schooling through Te Kura, which gave her the flexibility for training sessions, but she would go the whole day without seeing her peers.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt actually got really lonely,\u201d she says. \u201cSo when I came back [to school this year], I\u2019ve noticed how important it is to make sure you keep your social side.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nacagilevu is a confident teen. Competition is where she thrives, she says, adding that she lifts better when she is around people. When she feels nervous, she uses it to her strength.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m always nervous, but I have to fully trust myself and believe in myself to get through it,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
When things don\u2019t go to plan, Nacagilevu tells herself a two-word phrase.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2018ve always taught myself to come back and think \u2018next job\u2019 because whatever\u2019s happened just then, I can\u2019t change it … you have to move on,\u201d she explains.<\/p>\n
![\"Litia]()
Litia Nacagilevu. Photo \/ Dean Purcell<\/p>\n
The Dream Seats prize also included exclusive mentoring from national sporting legend Dame Valerie Adams.<\/p>\n
Speaking to the Herald at the AUT Millennium Gym in Auckland, the pair are meeting for the first time but the chemistry between them is hilariously obvious. At one point, Adams picks Nacagilevu up like a pillow. Nacagilevu doesn\u2019t get to return the favour, though she attests she could have easily done so.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s something about her that makes you feel like you\u2019ve just known her for a really long time,\u201d Nacagilevu says.<\/p>\n
![\"Litia]()
Litia Nacagilevu with her mentor Dame Valerie Adams at the AUT Millennium gym in Auckland. Photo \/ Dean Purcell<\/p>\n
The energy between the two is comfortable and warm, but also very serious. Being strong used to be about survival for Adams.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow it means, actually having the strength to speak up when I need to speak up, be present when I need to be present, be a pillar for the rest of my Polynesian brothers and sisters,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
\u201cLife is tough for a lot of our youngsters. The world is hard, it\u2019s expensive, and there\u2019s a lot of pressure on social media. So we just have to find ways to continue to encourage and empower, especially our youth coming.\u201d<\/p>\n
The celebrated shotput athlete\u2019s most valuable advice during her first mentoring session with Nacagilevu comes from sharing her own experiences and the main \u201cdos and don\u2019ts\u201d of being an athlete.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe was saying like, \u2018it\u2019s okay to kick people off the bus and it\u2019s okay to replace people on the bus\u2019. That\u2019s like something that really like stuck with me,\u201d Nacagilevu recalls. <\/p>\n
\u201cGoing into these big comps and at the level I\u2019m at now … I need to think about who\u2019s on my side and who\u2019s helping me get to these competitions or who\u2019s, like, driving me.\u201d <\/p>\n
They also discussed in the mentoring session other critical and unavoidable aspects of being an athlete and a woman: the menstrual cycle. Nacagilevu says at the start of her weightlifting journey, she would feel her training sessions or competitions would go poorly because she was menstruating.<\/p>\n
![\"Litia]()
Litia Nacagilevu dreams of competing at the Commonwealth Games. Photo \/ Dean Purcell<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I learned that during that time is when your body is actually the strongest … you have to tell yourself that you\u2019re strong and, like no matter what\u2019s going on with your body right now, you can push through it.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause no one else can push you as much as you push yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n
Is she New Zealand\u2019s strongest teen? Nacagilevu doesn\u2019t bat an eyelid at the question.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, I think I am,\u201d she says. \u201cI don\u2019t care if there\u2019s anyone else.\u201d<\/p>\n
With the same glint of invincibility in her eyes, she adds later that at every competition, she gets asked if she feels nervous. Her response is always the same.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo. I\u2019m ready,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s all I can say.\u201d<\/p>\n
Varsha Anjali is a journalist in the lifestyle team at the Herald. Based in Auckland, she covers culture, travel and more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Norway was also her first senior World Championships. She set New Zealand junior and senior records, as well…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":91581,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[2246,5162,51038,6489,6758,26588,68683,68684,91,111,139,69,213,68682],"class_list":["post-91580","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-2246","tag-chasing","tag-commonwealth","tag-games","tag-glory","tag-junior","tag-litia","tag-nacagilevu","tag-nelson","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-sports","tag-weightlifter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91580","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91580"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91580\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/91581"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}