Melissa Coates Interview by Larry Goodman
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Q: I wanted to ask you about your family background. In your bio, you said the rest of your family was pretty conventional.
Melissa Coates: I’m from Thunder Bay, Ontario. My father was a doctor. My mom was a nurse, and she was also an amateur actress, which is probably where I got some of performing interest from. My two brothers are doctors. My sister has written a few books, but she’s actually more of a social worker now. She also studied philosophy. I also went to school and got degree in Biology. I just ended up enjoying weightlifting and started doing powerlifting, and from there it progressed. I played a lot of sports when I was younger. I really loved tennis. At the time, the person I most looked up to was Martina Navratilova because of her muscular build, so I actually started using weights to train for tennis and I developed really easily, and it just kind of went from there. I have my college degree. I can fall back on it, I suppose, but I just enjoy sports. I’m the best athlete in my family. That’s what I enjoy, and lucky for me, I’ve had some success doing it.