There are few people in the sport of powerlifting with the type of resume that Marianna Gasparyan has built. Now she is walking away from the sport with that resume in tact, as she announces her retirement at age 32.
In just 8 years of competition, Gasparyan put together a wild streak of impressive victories. Across mostly three different divisions, she has won titles in the WRPF and USPA to name but a few organizations.
As a matter of fact, her resume is much more insane than that. Across nearly 40 competitions, Mariana never lost to another woman. The only time that she did not come in first place was at the 2017 WRPF World Pro Championships, where she came first out of females and second only to Yury Belkin overall.
However as much as Marianna Gasparyan has been a dominant force in the world of powerlifting, she has decided to call it quits. Posting to Instagram, the 32-year old revealed that she has decided to step away from the sport.
While she retires undefeated, she walks away from the sport with a heavy heart. She just feels like it is time to pursue other ventures in life, but will always live with the sport of powerlifting in her heart.
“I am leaving the game !!!” Gasparyan wrote.
“I am leaving undefeated, I am leaving at the peak of my career and at the peak of my strength. This is the most difficult decision in my life, this decision with tears in my eyes, this decision with pain in my heart. Only now that I realize how much I love powerlifting. I did what no one could do, I wrote a new story. I did everything possible to make women’s powerlifting interesting. I showed femininity and incredible strength together. Yes, I know I can still set many records, I can climb the platform for many more years, but ……..
“I need to be able to stop. In sports, as in gambling, the main thing is to stop on time,” Gasparyan continued. “I need to be able to admit to yourself that I’m tired. In 10 years in powerlifting, I have had no one injury. As much as I would not want to experience the feeling of victory over and over again, to receive from the recognition of the fans, I would not want to get some kind of injury. I’m leaving healthy.
“I write these words and my heart beats faster and I do not see the text, because my eyes are filled with tears😭 I tear myself away from what I have lived for the last 10 years. I leave the platform but leave my name in powerlifting (hopefully for a long time) and a piece of myself in the form of my record tasks.
“I am grateful to everyone who supported me over the years, for their faith in me and for their kind words,” Marianna Gasparyan concluded. “I want to express my deep respect to all my competitors, all the ladies I once met on the platform. Thanks to the organisers of all the competitions, you are doing the hard work. The judges who judged me , my obeisances forever for you. Thank you very much to @russakern for the biggest prizes ever, you gave a new breath to this sport and athletes a lot of motivation. Thanks to all my sponsors, I was happy to work with you. And of course, the main person in my life, my favorite coach @dr.power_sergy who started it all. You gave me all of this, you made me the best and strongest on the planet, you made my worst performance still the best. You always supported me and even now, I love you very much and thank you.
P.S. Powerlifting in my heart, forever. I’ll miss you 😢”
It is unfortunate that Gasparyan has decided to walk away from the sport, seemingly with more to offer. That said, it is unclear where she plans to go next in life, now that she is closing the door on the powerlifting chapter of her life.
In the past, Marianna has dabbled in the world of bodybuilding, competing as recently as November, So perhaps we could see her return to that stage now that she is not competitively lifting.
At the end of the day, whatever Marianna Gasparyan decides to do, she has earned the right to choose. She walks away from the sport as one of the best to ever do it.
Published: 7 May, 2021 | 5:23 PM EDT
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