Burrell grad Sophia Ruggeri competed at the 2025 USA Powerlifting Pittsburgh Summer Classic on July 19 at Legends of Pittsburgh Fitness and Performance Center in Tarentum.
Sophia Ruggeri showed strength and power while winning awards as an accomplished gymnast, reaching the highest levels of club performances while also starring as a member of her high school team at Burrell.
Now, she is making her mark in a different arena.
Ruggeri has immersed herself in the world of powerlifting, and her first competition a couple of weeks ago was a rousing success.
She was presented the Best Lifter Award and won two titles -- Women's Raw Junior (ages 20-23) 56 KG and Women's Raw Open 56 KG - at the 2025 USA Powerlifting Pittsburgh Summer Classic on July 19 at Legends of Pittsburgh Fitness and Performance Center in Tarentum.
"I was extremely nervous, but it was more of an excited nervous," Ruggeri said. "I was confident in my lifts but not as much with the whole meet aspect because I had never done it before. But everything worked out in the end. I was super excited to win. It boosted my confidence to keep going."
Ruggeri stopped competing in gymnastics when she graduated from Burrell in 2023. She had risen to a Level 9 gymnast, just one step away from the highest spot one can achieve in the Junior Olympic program.
"I definitely missed it, and I kind of got into powerlifting to fill that void," Ruggeri said. "It was such a big passion, so I wanted to find another one. I coached (gymnastics) for a while to stay in it. I didn't realize how much it was my whole life until I graduated."
Ruggeri traces her genesis in powerlifting to when she got a membership to Legends of Pittsburgh.
"It was more of a powerlifting atmosphere," she said. "I was actually interested in bodybuilding before I went to the gym. Then a bunch of people were talking to me about maybe I should try Olympic lifts (snatch, clean and jerk) or powerlifting (squad, bench and deadlift). I was complaining that I never felt strong when I was bodybuilding. One of my good friends, Ethan Clarke, is a coach, and he suggested I train for a couple of months to see if I liked it."
Ruggeri started training a little more than three months ago and progressed to where she entered the Summer Classic.
When she started, she was doing both Olympic lifting and powerlifting.
"It was kind of me figuring it all out," she said. "It was a little weird because with gymnastics, I was kind of born into it. It kind of felt easy to build onto it. It felt nice to build that passion for something else and work hard to achieve each goal. Being at a powerlifting gym, I would get advice left and right, and that definitely helped. It felt super new that I wasn't born into powerlifting."
Ruggeri said she kept convincing herself that she wanted to wait until she was as strong as possible before she entered her first competition.
But a month into training, Clarke stepped in and said she would be ready sooner.
"He mentioned to me that I was stronger than I thought and that if he would put me in a meet, I would realize that more and be able to decide if that is what I wanted to continue to do,'' she said. "The meet happened to be at Legends, so that helped me be comfortable with my decision."
Ruggeri experienced some change about a month before the competition as Clarke moved to Connecticut. A friend stepped in and helped her the day of the meet.
"There were big nerves on, 'What if I do this wrong?' " she said. "Because the hardest part of powerlifting to me is not the lifts in meets. I was pretty confident with them. It's that there are certain commands from referees for every lift. If you don't follow the command, you get red-lighted, and you don't get credit for the lift.
"I had a couple of (prep) sessions with friends at the gym where they would give me commands. I went through everything from the lifts to making sure my equipment was (International Powerlifting Federation) approved. I was definitely super cautious."
Clarke, despite being in Connecticut, continues to advise Ruggeri with a weekly training schedule while she works at Wildlife Lanes in Lower Burrell and takes certification classes in personal training and nutrition through the National Academy of Sports Medicine.
Ruggeri said she plans to compete again in November at the USA Powerlifting Pittsburgh Fall Classic at Legends, and she kicked off her meet prep training this past week.
Ruggeri said she had a good foundation of strength through her gymnastics training.
"Gymnastics training is definitely underrated. It definitely played a huge part in what I have been able to do with powerlifting," she said.
"I knew a couple of other gymnasts who went into powerlifting, so I had an idea that could be my thing. Even my endurance from gymnastics along with my overall strength with my body weight. I can do pull ups and push ups with my body weight, and it was definitely easier to add weight."