Karlyn Blumenthal took one step out her front door on a January morning in 2024 and was suddenly airborne. She had slipped on ice while heading into work, and the fall left her with a broken femur and a dislocated hip. Nearly two years later, the Oklahoma City woman stood on a stage in Las Vegas as a powerlifting champion, having deadlifted her way past competitors half her worry about aging and twice her doubt.
A Fall That Nearly Ended Everything
The injury happened on January 22, 2024, according to News 9, which first told Blumenthal’s story. Her surgeon operated the very next day, inserting a titanium rod and several screws to rebuild her shattered femur, as detailed by KFOR. The outlook was grim from the start. Doctors told her, as KFOR reported, “I’m pretty sure you’re going to have to teach yourself to walk,” warning she might limp for the rest of her life even in the best case.
Blumenthal cried and told herself this could not be the end, according to the account relayed by News 9. She began physical therapy just days after surgery, determined to prove the prognosis wrong. It was during one of those sessions that she noticed another patient performing an exercise with a wheel. She decided to try it herself, and she did it.
From Broomstick Squats to a 225-Pound Deadlift
After finishing physical therapy, Blumenthal joined 405 Fortitude Strength and Conditioning, where her coach encouraged her to consider competing in powerlifting. The sport wasn’t exactly a natural next step for someone who had just relearned how to walk. Per KFOR’s reporting, trainer Phoebe Lindley started her out squatting with nothing more than a broomstick before building her up to three 90-minute training sessions a week.
About a year after her surgery, Blumenthal entered a powerlifting competition for seniors in 2025. She won, deadlifting 225 pounds to take the Senior Games title. The National Senior Games Association notes that powerlifting is an open sport with no qualifying step required to register, meaning any older athlete willing to show up and lift can compete.
Oldest Competitor, Biggest Winner
Her Senior Games victory qualified her for the Olympia competition in Las Vegas, held September 25, according to News 9’s reporting. There, Blumenthal was the oldest competitor in her division, a fact that did nothing to slow her down. “And I won by 16 points,” she said, according to the station. She described feeling astonished at what she had accomplished, and said she was already looking ahead to her next competition.
The Olympia event that weekend featured both raw and equipped powerlifting competitions, according to Muscle & Fitness, and competitors faced two-hour, same-day weigh-ins rather than the 24-hour weigh-ins used at some meets, per USA Limitless. At meets like the Oklahoma Senior Games, lifters get three attempts each at the squat, bench press and deadlift, with the final total built from the heaviest successful lift in each category, according to Oklahoma Senior Games. That organization also notes that 2026 serves as a qualifying year for the 2027 National Senior Games in Tulsa.
Part of a Growing Wave of Older Lifters
Blumenthal is far from alone in finding unexpected strength later in life. In Iowa, a 69-year-old woman named Elizabeth Hendrix recently began entering powerlifting competitions after starting the sport in retirement, according to Axios Des Moines. And in New Zealand, 84-year-old Justine Whitaker has been setting age-group records and proving strength has no age limit, as reported by Newsroom.
For Blumenthal, the climb back from a shattered femur to an Olympia title came down to showing up, one session at a time, even when it meant squatting with a broomstick before she could squat with weight. “I am stronger now than I ever have been,” she told KFOR. It’s a line that captures a journey that began with a single misstep on an icy Oklahoma City sidewalk and ended on a competition stage in Las Vegas.
