The heavy lifter: How Francis balances elite sport and a global cause

Last weekend, Kelsey Francis claimed silver in the Judo Queensland state titles. This weekend, she’s backing up for the ‘Oly in the Outback’ weightlifting competition.  

And if juggling the training and competition commitments of two sports at a national level isn’t enough to keep her busy, Francis will spend some time working on her PhD. 

The queen of the mat completed her Bachelor of Laws and Commerce degree at Bond University last December and now, at 22 years old, has commenced a new chapter with her PhD titled ‘How women's access to justice increases household stability and economic development in developing countries’. 

Originally from Toowoomba, Francis began weightlifting in 2018 following a head injury whilst playing rugby which ruled her out of contact sports for three years.  

“As a teenager, I started playing a lot of rugby 7s and 15s and I got into the gym through that but when I had a pretty bad head knock, I thought why not give weightlifting a proper go,” she said. 

“I’m always down for a challenge, and weightlifting is a very challenging sport which requires a lot of technique and hard work.” 

In 2021, when training for weightlifting in the Bond gym, Francis met Jerome, an American Judo Blackbelt. She taught him some Olympic weightlifting movements and in turn he took her to the dojo took teach her a few moves, sparking her love for judo and its community. 

Francis finished second in the Queensland State Titles in the female open weight class behind Australian Judo representative Charlize Breen. 

This weekend’s ‘Oly in the Outback’ competition is her comeback to the bar after a back injury forced her to take time away from weightlifting.  

“I was out for part of the 2023 season and pretty much all of last season because I hurt my back pretty badly from overtraining,” she said. 

“I’ve been fortunate to work with a great team at the Bond Institute of Health and Sport and for the first time I’m back lifting with no pain. 

“I’ve come a long way. Six months ago I set a goal to finish on a certain weight at this weekend’s competition, and just last week I lifted 10kg above that goal weight.”

Francis will also compete at the Queensland weightlifting titles in August and the nationals in November where she will hope to reclaim her title as national champion.   

And then there's her PhD which was inspired during Covid when Franics was the only face-to-face student in Assistant Professor, Alex Acheampong's class. 

"I was telling Alex I wanted to research in law and I think he very successfully poached me to do my PhD under him at the Business school," she said.

“I have also been aware of social justice issues, that always came through in my undergraduate degree.” 

Following the completion of her Honours in international war crimes, Francis began her PhD in January this year. 

 “I really love researching. I’m really happy in the learning and education space,” Francis said. 

“For me, as a woman, justice is important. 

“When people look at economic trends, they tend to forget the things that underpin them and pure economic development tends to leave behind marginalised groups and women. 

“It's important to research how we can better develop the world while not leaving people behind.”