Ashleigh Hoeta is the first woman in the world to bench press over 300kg. She's a five-time New Zealand arm wrestling champion. A mother of two, currently studying to become a physio. But her journey to the top started with heartbreak, nearly ended before it began, and was carried by a promise she refused to break. In this episode of ShedLife NZ, Ashleigh sits down for a raw, honest conversation about everything it took to get here. Before any of the records, Ashleigh was a gymnast on a genuine path toward the Commonwealth Games and Olympics, until a short-landed vault tore the ligaments in her foot and ended that dream for good. By her own admission, she's never fully gotten over it. Then in 2020, she suffered a stroke. She describes the moment she tested whether her face still worked by looking in a mirror, only to discover one whole side hadn't moved. Had she gone to sleep that night without getting checked, the outcome could have been very different. Two years later, with her father seriously unwell, Ashleigh made him a promise: she'd become New Zealand's top female powerlifter. He passed away just three weeks after she made that vow. When she finally achieved the goal, the footage shows her screaming, not in celebration, but in grief finally breaking free. From there, Ashleigh explains how her coach turned that pain into fuel during training, the terrifying near-miss just a week before she set the world record, and how she stumbled into arm wrestling almost by accident, only to fall in love with a sport she says has a culture unlike anything else, where rivals become training partners the moment the match ends. In this episode: Losing a gymnastics career that was heading toward the Commonwealth Games and OlympicsThe stroke, and how close it came to being fatalThe promise made to her dying father, and what it cost to keep itTurning grief into fuel under the bar with her coachA near-miss a week before setting the world recordBecoming the first woman in the world to bench over 300kgFalling into arm wrestling, and the humbling wake-up call in TurkeyWhy arm wrestling's culture of rivals-turned-training-partners is unlike any other combat sportAdvice for young women thinking about getting into strength sportThis is a story about grief, resilience, and what it really means to keep a promise. 🎙️ ShedLife NZ Long-form Kiwi conversations with good people working hard, the stories, lessons and laughs behind the life they are building. 👇 Let us know in the comments: Have you ever made a promise to someone that changed the course of your life? Subscribe to ShedLife NZ for more Kiwi long-form conversations across rugby, sport, business, fighting and community. #AshleighHoeta #Powerlifting #ArmWrestling #WorldRecord #KiwiStories #StrengthSport #LongFormPodcast #NewZealand
