From wedding dress to weights, Silver Fern's daughter lifts her way to Glasgow

From wedding dress to weights, Silver Fern's daughter lifts her way to Glasgow

It all began with a wedding dress. Tu’i-Alofa Patolo-Tipene’s rapid rise to the Glasgow Commonwealth Games began when she first picked up a barbell at CrossFit six years ago, just after turning 30. “I needed to lose weight fast, a way to stay active because I was getting married that year,” she says. “I’d bought the wedding dress – it was a really fitted dress, too – then we went into Covid lockdown, and I became sedentary. “So I tried CrossFit.…