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As the first known hijab-wearing Muslim to represent England at a Commonwealth Games, Doaa Shayea is not your average powerlifter.
The para athlete, who can bench press the equivalent of a baby elephant, is determined to use her appearance at this month’s event in Glasgow to not only shine a light on disability sport but on the community of women she represents.
Shayea, 28, is hoping to do both while channelling her feminine side. “I’m also a make-up artist,” Shayea, who was born with the spinal condition spina bifida and has used a wheelchair since she was 10, tells Telegraph Sport. “It’s more of a hobby now but I used to do brides, girls for prom, all sorts. I compete in make-up. The way I see it is ‘look good, lift good’. I’m already looking forward to how I can coordinate my outfit for the Games. I really want to wear a sparkly lifting suit.”
Representing England in Glasgow will be a full-circle moment for Shayea, who, incredibly, only started the sport during the last iteration of the Games in Birmingham four years ago.
There have been obstacles, though, for Yemen-born Shayea, who moved to Plymouth with her parents when she was five years old. As a hijab-wearing athlete in a male-dominated sport, she regularly faces online vitriol. She counters it by knowing she is representing one of the most physically inactive communities in the UK. Research from Sport England shows that 42 per cent of British Muslim women are “inactive”, almost double the figure for the female population as a whole.
“I didn’t grow up seeing myself represented by other women in sport who looked like me, so I’ve essentially had to become that representation and be it for other people,” Shayea, who wears a tight-fitted sports hijab during competition, says. “I know people will be inspired by me being at the Commonwealths and if that’s the case then absolutely, it’s a win-win for me; it’s a bonus.”
A former national-level wheelchair racer, sport has always been an escape for Shayea. But in powerlifting, which she started despite initial reservations from her family, she has found her calling, even if it forced her to confront her own battle with body image. “Switching to a sport which requires you to build muscle and to be as heavy as you can has been tough,” Shayea says. “It’s been a real challenge to go into a sport where you need fat to cushion your muscles. Being really lean in powerlifting isn’t that helpful because you need to be able to shift weight. You need a certain ratio of fat to complement muscle. As women, we can’t naturally get as ripped as men; you could train for years and still not look that muscly. I thought I would be ripped and really big, but I struggled to bulk up.”
When Shayea started bench-pressing weights, she was 55kg. “I’m now about 65kg,” Shayea, who will be competing in the women’s heavyweight category for athletes who weigh more than 61kg, says. “As women, we’re surrounded by the narrative that the more beautiful you are, the thinner you should be. It’s been hard to break free from the beauty standards that chase us as women. It’s something that I’m working on, but I feel like I’m getting to a place where I feel empowered by the new me. It’s a different journey and adapting to a different body type. There’s no shame in women being strong and powerful.”
Shayea’s team-mate, Lottie McGuinness, can relate. McGuinness, who will compete in the women’s lightweight category (up to and including 61kg) at the Games, has been on her own personal journey with para powerlifting. A former competitive swimmer who was inspired by Ellie Simmonds, the five-time Paralympic champion, at the London 2012 Olympics, McGuinness showed instant promise when she was scouted for powerlifting in 2019.
Simmonds wrote McGuinness a letter when she was 10 years old, encouraging her to attend the World Dwarf Games. Simmonds’s letter ignited her interest in sport and remained a beacon of positivity. “I used to have a massive poster and newspaper cuttings all over my wall of her,” says McGuinness, who, along with Shayea, is one of 36 athletes being supported by the Women’s Sport Trust’s “Unlocked” programme.
Like Shayea, her progression was rapid; within 10 months of doing her first bench press she was representing Great Britain and became a British record holder four years later. But a year out from the 2024 Paralympics, her love for the sport started to wane.
“I was crying a lot in sessions and I didn’t want to train,” she says. “I accepted help from a clinical psychologist and learnt so much about myself. I became a different person and I’m so grateful for that. I found my mojo and my love for it again. I discovered that my anxiety was causing all these burnouts and losing my love for the sport.”
McGuinness, 24, comes from Harrogate and lives in the Yorkshire Dales, where she does most of her training in a converted-barn gym. “It’s my happy place,” McGuinness, who is the proud owner of two pygmy goats, says. “It’s still a barn structure but we’ve built a secure location for sporting equipment. My chickens and goats come in and out of it, but the goats did stop because they got a bit scared.”
Having finished fourth at the Paris Paralympics, McGuinness has experience of competing at a multi-games event but, like Shayea, she will make her Commonwealth Games debut in Glasgow on Friday. If her journey of self-discovery has taught her one thing, it is that the smaller, out-of-competition moments inspire her.
“When I give talks to kids at primary school, I often compare what I lift to animals. Kids find it quite hard to relate to weights; they don’t yet have that logic about how much something weighs,” McGuinness, who can lift both of her pygmy goats, says. “When they realised the animals I could lift, they were just in awe. I got so many messages telling me how inspired they were and that was the difference. That’s my biggest achievement. I’m living my dream, showing the world what I can do and inspiring others.
“It being on home soil will make it really accessible. It’s going to be amazing but I’m determined to slow down the process and try to enjoy being in the moment.”
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