Ronay H., 59, of Etters, Pa., was in her 40s when she found CrossFit. A self-proclaimed gym rat her whole life, she enjoyed pushing her body to its limit and competing with other like-minded people.
But as someone who's competitive and a bit older than her CrossFit peers, it wasn't long before injuries from overdoing showed up. To rehab those pesky injuries, Ronay started lifting weights at the gym.
“And that’s how I found Olympic weightlifting,” she says.
A group of men at her gym were training for competitions. Ronay quickly fell in love with the sport, undeterred by being the only woman in the room.
They invited her to a few local competitions. Then they convinced her to throw her name into the ring for the upcoming Pennsylvania state championship.
To Ronay’s surprise, she won the state competition for her age and weight class.
“After that, someone came up to me and asked if I had an Olympic weightlifting coach,” Ronay says. “I told them I didn’t, and they said, ‘You’re lifting world-class weights; I really think you should get one.’”
From Passionate Fan to Serious Competitor
From there, Ronay started working with Gary Karkuff, a fellow masters competitor and accomplished weightlifting coach.
“After our first workout together, Gary told me I needed to be ready in six weeks to compete in nationals,” Ronay says with a laugh. “I didn’t feel ready, but I showed up and ended up winning!”
Because of her national win, Ronay qualified for Team USA at the World Masters Weightlifting Championships in 2014.
She traveled to Copenhagen, Denmark, with her husband Justin, and made the mistake of eating too many olives the night before the competition. Although Ronay tied for gold, she ended up taking the silver. Officials based the tiebreaker on weight, and she was 2 pounds heavier than her opponent (thanks, olives).
It was a bit of a disappointment, “but not bad for my first step out onto the world stage,” Ronay says.
The weightlifting spark hadn't just been lit — it was becoming a forest fire inside her.
Ronay trained the entire next year and found herself sitting at the world championships once again, this time in Finland. It was there, on an excursion to Santa Claus Village, that Ronay and her husband officially met Mark Lavallee, MD, primary care sports medicine provider for UPMC in Central Pa.
Not only was Dr. Lavallee the chief medical officer for the U.S. team, but he also lived and worked only 2 miles from Ronay and Justin’s home.
Right after their official meeting, Ronay found out just how critical Dr. Lavallee would become to her weightlifting career. While taking off her Team USA jacket the night before competition, her wrist seized up. She quickly found Dr. Lavallee, and his team got to work.
“For hours and hours, they worked on me — dry needling, acupressure, massage, anything they could think of,” Ronay says. “They taped my wrist into place, and we hoped for the best.”
While Ronay didn’t quite hit the numbers she'd hoped for, she still took home the gold medal.
“I would not have won worlds that year if it weren’t for Dr. Lavallee and his team; I know that for sure,” Ronay says “Their support is truly what helped me win!”
And win she did that year, achieving a “grand slam” by winning all four masters weightlifting meets in a single calendar year. The next year, in Germany, Ronay won gold at the world championships again.
“I can’t even describe how critical Dr. Lavallee and his team have been for me to have so much success,” Ronay says. “Being older and competing with heavy weights, your body takes a serious beating. Always having sports medicine there for you to keep your body and fascia fresh, it makes all the difference.”
Dr. Lavallee and his team continued to work on Ronay during competitions and back home in central Pennsylvania. They broke up the fascia in her forearms and elbows and troubleshot as needed.
“He just really listens and cares,” she says. “His knowledge is just amazing. He knows about the body; he knows about my background. He just knows what to do to make me feel better.”
Ronay spent some time off from competing between 2016 and 2017 and had a lower back surgery in 2017. But just 10 months later, in 2018, she competed at the world championships in Germany and took home another gold. She went on to win her next gold in Montreal in 2019.
A Break for Family and a Breast Cancer Diagnosis
Things changed for Ronay and her weightlifting career when her mother received a stage 4 colon cancer diagnosis in 2021. She spent the next couple of years helping her mother through multiple surgeries and chemotherapy.
Things were going well for a while, then her mom’s cancer returned in 2024. It was during this time that Ronay realized she'd been putting off her mammogram for months.
By the time she finally went in for imaging, her breast cancer had just crossed into the stage 1 phase.
“It was mind-blowing to get cancer, to be honest,” Ronay says. “I just wondered how my body could betray me like that. I had treated it so well — given it nourishment, kept stress at bay, and done everything to live a healthy life.
"But I knew I had to find a lesson in it all: to make lemonade from lemons.”
Ronay underwent a bilateral mastectomy and reconstruction surgery.
“A month in and I was a wreck,” Ronay admits. “I thought my lifting career was over. Breast cancer takes a lot of things away from you. It breaks you down hard. But it’s when you start to put yourself back together that a lot of things change.”
After six surgeries between both of her breasts, and some trouble with her reconstruction, Ronay's providers declared her cancer-free.
“I felt blessed and grateful, and changed,” she says. “I knew I needed to take the opportunity to continue on.”
And continue on is exactly what Ronay did.
She joined the board of the American Cancer Society of South Central Pennsylvania, opening herself up to a whole new world of people to fight for.
Then, she started thinking about Olympic weightlifting again.
Finding Her Way Back to Olympic Weightlifting
In 2025, Ronay was hoping to plan a long-awaited anniversary trip to Greece with Justin. Not far out from her most recent breast surgery, Justin felt like it was a bad time. She gave up the idea and started going to competitions to watch people compete in Olympic weightlifting again.
That’s when Ronay found out about the location of the world championships in 2026 — Athens, Greece.
For Ronay, this felt like a sign.
“I wondered, ‘Could I do this again? After breast cancer, at 59 years old?’” she recalls.
Ronay started strength training with her coach. By January 2026, she was back to her Olympic weightlifting routine — lifting three to four times a week for a couple of hours and stretching, walking, and doing physical therapy exercises on her off days.
She continued working with Dr. Lavallee’s team as well. She put extra emphasis on the fascia release around the cancer surgery scars on her chest and Dr. Lavallee helped ease her achy knees.
Dr. Lavallee started doing platelet-rich plasma (PRP) injections in certain areas, too, which Ronay says has been a total game changer.
PRP is a treatment for chronic pain that involves injecting a biological concentrate of your own platelets, called a tissue graft, into the damaged area using ultrasound-guided injection technology.
The world championships will take place in September 2026.
“I have my old form back; things are really starting to turn," Ronay says. "I’m feeling ready to give it my best effort at worlds in just a few short months.”
A Team Effort for Lasting Health
After everything Ronay has experienced with her health, she continues to have a positive attitude.
“Every day is a choice — to feed our bodies and minds with nutrition, loving words, and loving thoughts about ourselves,” she says. “One of the reasons I do this is because I want to be in my 80s and still doing active things. I want to die knowing I lived this life.”
And through it all, Ronay's grateful she connected with people like Dr. Lavallee through UPMC.
“I’ve been treated very kindly in all of my experiences, and I think that is what’s important,” she says. “They treat you like a human, and when you walk in somewhere and feel welcome, that makes a difference.
“Regardless of anything in life, we don’t do it alone. You need a team. And when your team is solid, you can be on solid ground.”
