BATON ROUGE, LA (LOCAL33) (FOX44) – She’s known in the fitness world for her excellence in Olympic weight lifting. she has nearly perfect form, technique and strength, but her ability isn’t the only thing that has people turning heads.

On any given afternoon, Red Stick CrossFit is packed with athletes, including Brynn Catalano.

At just 10 years old, little Brynn can hang with the best.

“You’ll see her at times taking someone aside that’s 2-3 times her age, just trying to give tips and pointers to someone, and a lot of time she is pretty spot on in what she’s saying,” said Brynn’s dad, Chase Catalano.

“She’s not afraid to tell the 12-year-old boys what they’re doing wrong,” said Matt Bruce, Brynn’s coach.

In fact, she’s one of the strongest 10-year-old girls in the country.

“She won the 2019 Youth National Weight lifting 11 and under at 9 years old, and she was 2nd place for the 13 and under that year as well,” said Catalano.

Brynn said she was thrilled to take home first place.

“I was very excited because it was my first time actually winning. I’ve never done a big competition like that.”

It started as a fun distraction.

“I would try and make it fun for her and some of the younger kids around the gym. We’d teach them form and we’d play games. They didn’t realize that they were actually learning how to move something correctly,” said Catalano.

Those games quickly turned into a true passion.

“She started to get interested in it around 6-years-old, I would say. We bought a mini youth barbell that was light in weight, and started moving that around.”

Brynn workouts 3, sometimes 4 days a week to prep for her competitions

“She has better form at just 10-years-old than people who I’ve seen do this for 10-15 years, so that’s where she started to excel at,” said Catalano.


“She makes the choice to come here, so that already shows a discipline that she is building in the sport,” said Bruce.

But she still makes time to enjoy being kid.

“You got to let her play, and run, and talk on the phone, and look at YouTube or whatever else they do at 10-years-old,” said Catalano.

With each squat, and each lift, she is learning valuable life lessons.

“There’s no substitution for handwork, and she’s a model of that. It’s pretty awesome to watch from the sidelines,” said Catalano.

She’s setting an example that you really can do anything you put your mind to.

“It feels good so I can inspire other girls to do it,” said Brynn.

Brynn is training for her next competition. She’s hoping to defend her title this summer in North Carolina.