(WSVN) – A young South Florida athlete is ready to conquer the world stage, just two years after picking up the sport.

Eighteen-year-old Allison Rebustillo from Hialeah is already one of the top 20-and-under female Olympic weightlifters in the world in her weight class, and she started the sport just two years ago.

“You know, training your body to hold up, 300-plus pounds or be able to withstand force that’s double or triple times your body weight, it takes a lot of practice,” she said.

Rebustillo started lifting to get stronger for gymnastics, but when the pounds increased, she turned to Olympic weightlifting.

She weighs 152 pounds and has already lifted a combined total of 465 pounds in her two lifts — the snatch and clean and jerk — in competitions.

Rebustillo trains six days a week.

“It’s a surreal feeling. It takes a great toll, especially on your central nervous system, that when you’re putting weights, that your body’s like, wait, I don’t know if I can do this,” she said.

Rebustillo recently took the silver in the University Nationals, and just won her second straight Florida State Championship.

This week, she’ll represent the U.S. in the Junior Pan-American Championships in Mexico.

Allison is in the mix for the Olympic trials and has a shot at making the U.S. team for the 2028 Summer Games in Los Angeles.

“The biggest difference with Allie is she has a level of discipline and attention to detail that is so rare in even adults,” said Paul Behar, her weightlifting coach. “In this sport that is so precise, I think that that’s a big factor.”

“Being able to represent your country in something very different, something that I never thought I would be doing, like Olympic lifting, is such an experience that I can’t wait to have. Honestly, I’m so excited just to be there,” said Rebustillo.

She is next scheduled to compete on the international level at the Junior World Championships in Albania next year.

Rebustillo does all this training while still juggling her classwork at Miami Dade College to become a physical therapist.

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