VERMILION PARISH, La. ( KLFY ) — Abbeville High ‘s Khandi Shuford is a world champion. This dual-sport athlete is in a sport unknown to many, but she says powerlifting is just as big as any other sport.

“We hear mostly about football this, football that. They don’t really talk about the other sports that we have,” Shuford said.

In August, Shuford won three medals representing Cajun Prep Powerlifting at the Powerlifting World Championships in Malta. She won a silver medal in the bench press and gold medals in the deadlift and total weight in the 57-kilogram sub-junior division.

Shuford said it took dedication, passion, patience, focus, and “a lot of help from our community,” to win those medals.

After watching her brother Ceejae become a successful powerlifter, Shuford knew she wanted to be a powerlifter for the rest of her life.

“My first practice, I knew it was something that I would come to love to do and after my first meet that I won, I knew that I wanted to get stronger and compete more and win more,” she said.

Shuford won a pair of state championships in her freshman and sophomore years in powerlifting but the junior also plays softball for the Wildcats and 337 Softball .

“I started playing softball kind of at the end of my middle school years. Started off kind of late because I didn’t really like it at first. But once I started playing it more and more and more, I began to like, love it,” she said.

The two-time state champ is also a member of DECA, an organization that helps high school students prepare for college. This student-athlete wants to attend college on a powerlifting or softball scholarship and become a lawyer when she gets older.

Shuford says winning on the platform motivates her to achieve success outside of sports.

“It just inspired me to do better, have higher goals, more accomplishments throughout life not just in my two main sports,” she said.

The world champ said her parents are her biggest supporters and she has a message for any student-athlete that wants to thrive in their sport.

“When everything gets hard, just don’t give up. Keep pushing because you got it,” Shuford said.

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