Vegan Totals 495kg to Secure Silver at Russia’s Classic Powerlifting Cup

The competition is one of the two biggest nationwide. Weighing in at 73.5 kg and lifting raw, she totalled 495 kg, adding 30kg to her total over the last two years.

Kayta squatted 187.5 kg, benched 102.5 kg and deadlifted 205 kg. She also has close fails with larger lifts, providing a tantalising glimpse of what might be available.

She feels this is possible and says the meet “makes me hungry for more. To come back for that 505 kg total that I lifted yesterday. To get a national PR in total. To stay uninjured. To keep pushing the boundaries of human capabilities.”

Vegan in Russia

Katya has spent a lot of time in the US and finds provision for vegans a lot more difficult in Russia. Burgers are a similar price to the US although wages are a lot lower, so she makes her own seitan and high protein bread. She’s also made friends with a tofu producer.

“We buy tofu ‘cut offs’ 10 kg at a time and freeze it. Those are the pieces left over from cutting out squares for retail sale. Basically just randomly looking ugly tofu pieces for much cheaper than retail!”

“Falafel is the only thing you can get for take-out at two cafés – that’s it. The silver lining is – we have to cook a lot, and I eat much healthier compared to when I used to live in the US where every restaurant offers a vegan option and it’s easy to rely on processed foods more. We eat a lot of beans and home grown potatoes, beets, cabbage, carrots. You know the eastern European staples like Borsch, stews and ragut.”

Training to win

Katya is also determined and organised with her training, and stresses consistency.

“I train regardless whether I slept, or woke up a few times at night due to drone siren or to feed the baby or pick up mom from the hospital. Also before I was just proving vegans can be strong. Now I’m proving moms can come back to add +40kg to total after a c-section.”

The lifts at the Classic Cup underline how far Katya has come – the winning total at the nationals was just 3kg ahead of Katya’s. She’s also now been given a place on the national team.

She’s also pleased to prove what can be done as a vegan.

“Together we prove that there is no need to eat animals, and use animal products or use doping to get strong as hell.”