Sport / From finished to Phoenix – teenager completes stunning sporting comeback after arm break
IT’S FITTING that Phoenix plays such a major part in teenager Lauri Siegel’s sporting comeback.
Like the mythical bird rising from the ashes, 16-year-old Lauri has dragged herself from her lowest ebb to clamber to her biggest sporting high in just over 12 months.
A keen rugby player, Lauri was told that she may never play the sport ever again after a horror double bone break in her arm last year.
Such were the severity of her injuries, Lauri’s doctor actually hurt his own shoulder trying to fit metal rods into her arm during surgery.
While the average recovery time for a broken arm is around eight weeks, it took nine months for her to recover full strength last year.
But determined Lauri decided to throw herself fully into weightlifting in late January 2026, entering her very first strongwoman competition just three weeks later.
Under the watchful eye of celebrity supporters Luke and Tom Stoltman, Lauri produced a stunning performance to qualify for the world Static Monsters final later this year.
That event will take her full circle to Phoenix, Arizona in September – completing her remarkable sporting comeback.
‘She was in so much pain’
Her parents, Dawn and Gordon, are stunned by her progress after a painful period in which she barely wanted to go outside.
Lauri admits herself that she “just didn’t want to do anything” in the aftermath of her excruciating arm break.
On Lerwick Up Helly Aa day last year Dawn was readying herself to go out to the festival for the first time in over 20 years, when she got the call no mother ever wants.
“Her friend called me and I could hear Lauri screaming in the background,” Dawn told Shetland News.
“She just kept saying that she’d broken her arm.”
Lauri may have been a rampaging rugby captain, but her injury came in far more innocuous circumstances. Slipping off a platform at Hayfield playpark’s ‘flying fox’, she landed badly on her right arm and heard the break immediately.
The severity of Lauri’s break meant she had to be airlifted straight to Aberdeen for treatment.
Both bones in her forearm were broken, and actually “weren’t together” at all, Dawn said.
Lauri had to get metal rods inserted into her arm during surgery, which left her “black and blue” – and saw her doctor injure his own shoulder.
She had to get morphine due to the agony, and her mother said she was “really in a lot of pain”.
“The longest, hardest part was the rehab,” Dawn said.
“It did really affect her mental health. They told us it would normally take seven or eight weeks to recover, but it took nine months.
“She was in so much pain, more pain than she should have been and it was just for a continuous length of time.”
Doctors discovered Lauri had complex regional pain syndrome, a rare condition which causes sufferers even more long-lasting pain after surgery, which stems from traumatic injuries.
Dawn admitted that the whole ordeal has been “really, really tough” – not just for Lauri, but for her and Gordon as parents too.
“She didn’t want to go anywhere, didn’t want to do anything for months,” she said.
“They decided they would put her on a hefty dose of medication, but we could still see how much it was affecting her.”
The comeback
Lauri struggled with watching her rugby team-mates from the sidelines, but slowly began to work on her path back to the pitch.
She started doing weight bearing training at the doctor, starting from a tin of beans and working her way back up to full strength.
After months of not wanting to leave the house, Lauri was given the clear in September to start tackling again in rugby – and was at training just a few hours later.
Lauri says she “never thought I would play rugby again”, but was then invited to play for Caithness’ under-18 side just weeks after getting the all-clear to return.
In an incredible moment for her and her family, Lauri ran home her first try since the arm break to cap a major milestone in her recovery.
“I was really nervous,” she admitted. “I was so worried about just landing on my arm and breaking it again.”
Lauri began to develop an interest in powerlifting and strongwoman competitions, fuelled by family friend Tegan Patterson and her success on the mainland, before she broke her arm.
Having worked herself back from lifting a solitary tin of beans, she told her parents that she wanted to go to the Scalloway gym at the start of 2026.
“Scalloway really took her in under their wing,” Gordon admits.
“Within five minutes of her saying that she wanted to go, Stuart Moar had set up a group chat for anyone that wanted to go in and help her.”
Almost a year to the day from her arm break, Lauri began training at Scalloway – and immediately set her sights on her first strongwoman competition just three weeks later.
That was the Static Monsters contest at the brand new Stoltman Strength Centre in Invergordon, helmed by strong brother duo Luke and Tom Stoltman.
Rising to Phoenix
Lauri had everything to be nervous about – her first strongwoman competition, aged just 16, in front of two celebrity strongmen and all with an arm held in place by metal rods.
And to cap it all off – Luke and Tom announced that Lauri would be doing the first lift of the day in front of the watching crowd.
“I was very nervous,” Lauri laughs. “It was pretty surreal.”
Then the adrenaline kicked in, and she aced her 35kg log lift immediately.
“Everyone was saying ‘it’s too easy, she’s doing it no bother’,” said Dawn.
She narrowly missed out on the 50kg lift after being encouraged to give it a go by Luke, but completed 40kg for a superb start.
Then it was on to the deadlift, where Lauri again made light work of the 90kg lift.
Her previous best was 100kg, but she smashed that to earn a new best of 125kg and to cap off a remarkable first competition.
“The ones that have been doing it for years were asking how old she was, and how long she’d been doing it for,” Gordon says.
“We said, ‘she’s 16 and she’s been doing it for a few weeks’. They were like, ‘you are joking’.”
Lauri says that having “the world’s strongest brothers cheering you on” was a unique and incredible experience.
At the end of the weekend the family did not really know what her performance meant, or whether it would lead to anything more.
That was until an elated Lauri got the results through and discovered she had qualified for the world finals in the USA later this year.
“I was just going down for the experience, I wasn’t expecting to be able to go to America,” she said.
“The amount of messages and comments has been unreal. The support has been amazing.”
Her parents were left absolutely stunned by the news, and both said that they were “really, really proud of her”.
“Gordon says it’s my stubbornness she has, but we’ll just say she’s determined,” Dawn laughed.
“She has Dawn’s stubbornness and my strength,” Gordon added.
For the family the hard work starts now, with Lauri set to begin fundraising for her “once in a lifetime” trip to the USA later this year.
They are hoping to hold Sunday teas and bingo nights to raise money.
Any companies that would like to sponsor Lauri can do so by getting in touch with her family at ngraved.shetland@gmail.com for more information.
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