Two Lebanese women lifting their country higher

Lebanese women are rewriting what strength looks like, one lift at a time. From a gym in Beirut where a young woman stumbled into a competition she didn't know existed, to a Lebanese-American athlete who turned a cheerleading background into an international weightlifting career, Joya Khairallah and Alexa Mina are two very different stories bound by the same thread: refusing to be told no.

Joya Khairallah: World Record Powerlifter

It started, as many great things do, with friends. Joya Khairallah was dragged to the gym one evening by her social circle, just for fun, just to have somewhere to be together. She had no idea what powerlifting was. She watched her friends do deadlifts, squats, and bench presses and assumed it was simply what people did at the gym. "I didn't know it was a specific sport," she tells The Beiruter.

Then there was a small in-gym competition at Barbell House, and something shifted. She went to watch. "Even if it's your opponent going up to lift the weight, you can't help but cheer for them," she said. "There is no way you can't. That's what I love most about this sport." That spirit, that impossible warmth in a competitive arena, was what pulled her in for good.

She marched up to her coach, Jad, and told him she wanted to do it too. He began training her properly, and then told her something she didn't believe for years: that one day they would go to the World Championships and win. "I honestly didn't believe him," she said, laughing at the memory.

She entered several national championships and won all of them, and it was then that she realized she could step outside and try to represent Lebanon internationally. Her first World Championships appearance came in Sweden in 2021, where she placed sixth. In 2022, she returned and claimed silver. Then came 2023, Cluj-Napoca, Romania, and everything her coach had promised came true.

In the 52kg class, she deadlifted 183.5kg, with a total lifted weight of 428.5kg across squat, bench press, and deadlift, equivalent to 8 times her own body weight. Two world records, both still standing. "2023… I came first and broke 2 world records, and no one has broken them since," she said, with a pride that needed no embellishment.

The road to that platform was not smooth. Getting there required sponsors she had to chase down herself. Visa-related issues weighed heavily, she did not receive her visa until the day before her flight to Romania, training through tears in those final sessions, convinced all her work had gone to waste. Each trip abroad cost upwards of $2,500 to $3,000 just in participation fees, before food or accommodation. "I had to go out and ask, and beg a little," she said of finding sponsors. "CFI sponsored me for the 2023 trip. The first time I ever traveled, a gym just volunteered to help me."

She also had to challenge deeply ingrained gender stereotypes, meeting people who told her she shouldn't lift weights because it was a sport for men. Her response has been consistent: "People will talk anyway, so why not do what we want and ignore the prejudices?"

Today, Joya is on a long, well-earned break. Seven years of back-to-back competitions, strict weight-cutting diets, and relentless pressure took a toll that went beyond physical. "I fell into an eating disorder. I gained 14 kilos in one month after one competition. I suffered from depression," she said. "I never took breaks between competitions; I'd finish one and immediately start preparing for the next. No going out. No eating freely. No normal life." She is honest that she doesn't know if she'll return to competition. "For now, I'm taking a break that I deserve. And living in Lebanon doesn't help either, the stress of just being here, on top of everything else."

But for any young girl watching her story and thinking it's impossible, her message, tested and earned, is simple: "If you believe and work for it, nothing can stand in your way. I know it sounds like a cliché, but I lived it."

Alexa Mina: The Lebanese-American who came home through the barbell

Alexa Mina grew up in the United States, steeped in Lebanese heritage but geographically far from the country she would one day represent on a podium. Born and raised in the US, she made the decision to compete for Lebanon in Olympic weightlifting, a sport that has seen a significant rise in popularity in recent years.

Her path into the sport began through cheerleading and CrossFit. "My coaches had us do CrossFit-style training to stay in shape for competition routines," she tells The Beiruter. "That's where I first developed a love for strength training." When her collegiate athletic career ended, lifting filled the void, and then became the thing itself. "What drew me in was the feeling of becoming stronger, both physically and mentally, and the constant pursuit of improving your craft."

The pivot to competing for Lebanon came through a conversation with teammate Mahassen Hala Fattouh, the trailblazer who had paved the way for Lebanese women in international weightlifting. "I didn't know of any Lebanese female athletes growing up, the first one I knew of was Hala," she said. "She encouraged me to reach out to the Lebanese Olympic Committee, and that conversation changed everything." Representing Lebanon has deepened Alexa's connection to her heritage, motivating her to improve her Arabic and forge a stronger bond with her roots.

Her first international competition came at the 2022 Islamic Solidarity Games, where she went in nervous and came out with bronze. "My training leading up to it wasn't ideal, so I kept my expectations simple, just make as many lifts as possible," she said. "Walking away with a medal was something I never expected. It truly felt like a dream." She had become only the second Lebanese woman in history to medal in weightlifting internationally, following Fattouh's footsteps.

The momentum continued. At the 2023 IWF Grand Prix in Cuba, she posted a 195kg total, 86kg snatch and 109kg clean and jerk, placing fourth and hitting what she described as a turning point in her career: "I truly felt like I stepped into my potential as an athlete." The following year brought both setback and triumph: she came back from an elbow injury and surgery to place second at the Arab Championships. "Each of these experiences has helped me grow not just physically, but mentally," she said.

Her training is structured around phased programming: hypertrophy to build muscle, strength phases to condition it for heavy loads, and a taper period before competition to arrive recovered rather than fatigued. She trains around 5 days a week, each session a couple of hours long, with recovery, sleep, and nutrition treated as non-negotiable pillars. Her immediate target is the Mediterranean Games in Italy this August, another chapter in a story still being written.

And her message to young Lebanese women considering the sport carries both warmth and conviction: "Don't be afraid to be strong. Strength is not something to shy away from, it's something to be proud of, both physically and mentally. You're capable of far more than you think."

Strength beyond the platform

Both Joya Khairallah and Alexa Mina are building something more durable than medals and records. They come from different starting points, but they arrive at the same place: a redefinition of what Lebanese women can hold.