Chloe Whylie: Power Is The Word

On picking up powerlifting, Chloe says she was intrigued to start Olympic weightlifting, but lifting a bar above your head seemed “a bit scary” initially. She found powerlifting gave her a deep sense of resilience, and, after going through so much trauma, she decided to give Olympic lifting a go, too.” What’s the difference between the two? Technique primarily, she says. “Powerlifting is three movements: squat, bench, deadlift, and Olympic weightlifting is snatch, clean and jerk.”

Chloe’s mixed heritage serves as inspiration for another creative outlet: spoken word. “I just speak about what I know, being Black British and the Windrush generation. It’s been understanding myself a bit more, my culture, and that has formed into art,” she says. “In this country, we learn all about Martin Luther King, which is great, but we weren’t taught about the Windrush generation, why they came here, how much they’ve done for this country. We learned about Rosa Parks [the American civil rights activist], but [when I was at school] we didn’t talk about the first Black bus drivers in Bristol down the road from me. Black British history is definitely something I’ve been trying to educate myself on.”

Spoken word is her “form of meditation.” So how does it differ from, say, poetry? “It’s a cross between poetry and rap – you get to put more of an edge on it. Spoken word artists have our own flow and rhythm, there’s more performance behind it,” she explains. Is London’s spoken word scene another male-dominated space? “It’s pretty mixed now, you’ve got so many different backgrounds and characters who are in it. America has been so much further ahead of us when it comes to spoken word, but London is definitely catching on.”

As she has been busy competing over the last four years, Chloe performs less now and describes herself as a studio artist – she is currently working on an album called ‘Healing More Than Me’. Who does she take inspiration from in the spoken word world? “Akala (@akalamusic), he started out more as a rapper, he is my main inspiration; Kae Tempest, Charlie Dark (Run Dem Crew founder @daddydarkrdc) and LyricL (@LyricL_ ). I met them when I was, like, 16, when they came down to Bath to do a performance. They were the people who really pushed me.”

She adds that strong women are often associated with being aggressive, which doesn’t help. “The first strength athlete you probably saw in a film was Miss Trunchbull in Matilda – so the seed is already planted, where are the strength athletes who are just everyday women, looking after our bodies?” And women still too often discover strength training by accident. “But then they start to feel empowered, it helps you hormonally, improves your stamina and energy and helps to prevent injury – especially if you work in a desk job. It’s about the long game – everyone should be strong.”

So does she encourage other women to pursue multiple interests, too? “I was told not to juggle by everyone but you have to see it in order to believe it, so I just kept on with everything. It’s all about knowing when to give and take and push. We’re incredible beings who are here to do many things, we’re not just one person throughout life. I think by having multiple interests you’re setting yourself up much better long term, especially as an athlete – we’re not here to compete forever. Weightlifting isn’t my identity, powerlifting isn’t me, spoken word isn’t me, these things are just extensions of who I am.”