Teen Zoe Simon gets a lift from competing at Australian Youth Olympic Festival

ZOE Simon has only been training at weightlifting for a year, but recently she represented Australia in green and gold.

2013.02.01 Weight 2

ZOE Simon, from Thornleigh, has only been training at weightlifting for a year, but recently she pulled on the green and gold and lifted for Australia.

At 14, Zoe was the youngest lifter at the Australian Youth Olympic Festival.

She finished in eighth in the 69kg category and said the experience has spurred her on to train harder and do better.

"Seeing lifters that you normally only would get to watch on YouTube or at an Olympics was amazing," the Mt St Benedict Year 10 student said.

Zoe scored a combined total of 99, with 47 in the snatch and 52 in the clean and jerk.

"This was my first time repping for Australia and I'm hoping to go to the Oceania Championships in May and the Youth Olympic qualifiers in China next year," she said.

"I don't know if I'll ever make it to an Olympics, because we (Australia) only get one girl and one boy at an Olympics, but I'd love to go to a Commonwealth Games and a World Championships."