For someone who carries a lot of weight on her shoulders, Croydon's Jo Calvino is in fine spirits.

Britain's number one female weightlifter, in the U53k and U48k categories, recently qualified for her fourth European Championships by winning the UK Invitational tournament in Birmingham - entering the record books in the process.

Her lift of 89kg in the clean and jerk was enough to break the British record and her 63kg snatch equalled her previously set British best, which illustrates her dominance of the sport over the past 11 years.

But, worryingly for her rivals, the 26-year-old has not even reached her peak yet. This should arrive just in time for the big one, the London 2012 Olympics.

"That's what we are all working towards and it will be the pinicle of my career," said Jo.

"A lot of Olympic and world champions have been in their early 30s and that's the age I will be."

Meeting Jo at her training camp at the National Sports Centre in Crystal Palace, it would be fair to say she does not look like the stereotypical weightlifter.

But that's the problem. The stereotype is far from accurate and Jo believes that puts a lot of female athletes off the idea of becoming a weightlifter.

"People don't believe me when they find out what I do because with weighlifting, you get the crossover with body building, who are not as elegant as us." she said.

"Most men say to me you can't be a weightlifter, you haven't got big enough arms or what do you bench press?' "It's not like that, you don't have to be big and muscley to lift weights."

At just 4ft11in, Jo proves just that. She started weightlifting at the age of 13 after spending time in the gym while training to be a diver.

She had been diving since she was five years old but after her interest started to wane off life on the springboards, she was convinced by her coach Keith Morgan to try weightlifting. She hasn't looked back since.

"Keith said he could make me into an international weightlifter within two months." she said.

He was right. Jo made her UK junior debut when she was just 14-year-old and represented the senior side at 15.

She's competed in two Commonwealth Games, including Manchester in 2002, five World and three European championships.

The notable absentee from her CV is the Olympics and she hopes, with the help of her physio Tim Allardyce, to qualify for Beijing 2008, before gaining automatic entry into the London Olympics, as she represents the host nation.

"We haven't got many female weightlifters in the UK so it's hard to qualify for the Olympics as you have to qualify as a squad," she added.

"But the sport is steadily growing in stature in this country and maybe with a little success, we could have a really good squad for London."

If you or your business are interested in sponsoring Jo, call 020 8330 9579.