In the past few years "Coach Mary," as Theisen Lappen is known, switched sports and gave up her job to focus on weightlifting.

She nearly broke a record set by an Olympic medallist in one of her first major competitions and is vying with another Olympic medallist for a place on the United States team at Paris 2024.

Sarah Robles, an Olympic bronze medallist at Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020, is ahead of Theisen Lappen in the Paris 2024 rankings at super-heavyweight but on current form the placings could be reversed in the remaining qualifying competitions.

"I obviously look up to Sarah and Cheryl Haworth [an Olympic bronze medallist at Sydney 2000], as they have truly paved the way for the American super women to follow," Theisen Lappen said.

Three years ago, when she was virtually unknown, Theisen Lappen came close to beating the national clean and jerk record set by Haworth in 2005 – and last year she did it with a personal-best 163 kilograms.

At the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) Grand Prix in Havana, Cuba, scheduled to start on Wednesday (June 8), Theisen Lappen will get the chance to say hello to athletes she wants to meet.

"I’ve never been anywhere apart from a fishing trip to Canada when I was at middle school, and to two PanAm Championships [in Ecuador and Argentina]," said the 32-year-old from Wisconsin.

"This is the biggest competition I have ever been in and I’m really looking forward to it, meeting people from other parts of the world for the first time.

"I can just tell that the supers are super friendly because I’ve already met Liseth [Ayovi] from Ecuador at the PanAms and had some nice messages on social media from Egypt [Halima Sedky], England [Emily Campbell] and Norway [Solfrid Koanda]."

World champion Koanda is competing at 81kg and is not a super-heavyweight, but Theisen Lappen has a strong connection with her.

"People don’t believe it because I’m not blonde, I don’t speak the language and I’ve never even been to Europe but I’m more than 50 per cent Norwegian," she said.

"My family has been here in the US for eight generations. Besides, I eat a lot of lefse [Norwegian potato bread]."

"Coach Mary" will also have plenty to talk about with Campbell, a silver medallist at the re-arranged 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo.

Both come from a throwing background in athletics, and both have voiced their love of teaching and inspiring youngsters, either schoolchildren or college students.

Campbell threw the hammer and discus and was a shot putter at regional level before she took up weightlifting, while Theisen Lappen had already moved into college coaching in athletics - hence her nickname - after a decorated career as a shot putter at National Collegiate Athletics Association level.

Others have done the same: the former IWF Women’s Commission chair Karoliina Lundahl competed at Atlanta 1996 as a shot putter and at Sydney 2000 as a weightlifter for Finland, while Piet van der Kruk qualified in both sports for Mexico City 1968 before opting for weightlifting.

"I didn’t have as much potential in track and field as I have in weightlifting - this is more exciting," said Theisen Lappen, who still thinks it "sounds kind of crazy" that her improvement means she is paid enough by USA Weightlifting (USAW) to earn a living as a full-time athlete.

The success of the Americans’ recruitment and development programme will be clear to see in Cuba, where the US is the only nation sending a maximum team of 20.

CJ Cummings returns to action for the first time since he finished ninth at Tokyo 2020, up in weight, and a strong women’s team features Hayley Reichardt, Jourdan Delacruz, Olivia Reeves, Matty Rogers and Kate Vibert, as well as Theisen Lappen and Robles.

Theisen Lappen had done some lifting, squats and cleans, in her training as a thrower and switched when a USAW high-performance specialist tried to recruit one of her friends from shot put.

He said he was not interested but "you should ask Mary, she’ll be good."

Theisen Lappen said yes, and there were tears when she had to tell her students at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh - "a great bunch of kids" - that she could no longer be their track and field coach because she was going back to competition, this time as a full-time weightlifter.

"It was tough because what I really love to do is coaching," said Theisen Lappen, who has a degree in sport management and coaching, a masters in education, and already coaches 20 weightlifters remotely.

Her coach Wil Fleming also has a background in athletics, having been a hammer thrower and a track and field coach.

"We understand each other, we are both from track and field and both coaches, which is to my benefit because it makes it easier for me to coach her," Fleming said.

"Some athletes might get jealous if I appear to be spending more time with somebody else, but Mary understands that you’re trying to balance your time with multiple people, that people have different needs and so on.

"If you ask coaches, they say 'coaching is in you.'

"It was for me, and it is for Mary.

"Mary will definitely coach again, but whether in track and field or weightlifting I don’t know."

Theisen Lappen’s first competition was a local meet in 2018 where she made 81-125-206, about 70kg less than her recent efforts.

With improvement in the snatch, where she is hoping to break the 120kg barrier, the numbers can go up to the mid-280s soon.

"Maybe that life as a track coach will resume one day, but I couldn’t do both," Theisen Lappen said.

"I live in the north and was standing out in the cold all day long all of the year, and when I went to weightlifting training, I couldn’t warm up properly.

"My husband Casey was very supportive, he said we could make it work and I went to weightlifting full-time.

"I really want to be a ma so I don’t know how long I will keep training, and although it depends on what happens with LA 2028 [the IWF is hoping weightlifting will be restored to the programme by the International Olympic Committee] I don’t intend to train all the way through for that."

A good end point to her career, Theisen Lappen said, would be the 2025 IWF World Championships - because they are due to be in Norway, the land of her ancestors.