America's Great Young Weightlifting Hope

   

Posted by Sterling McKinley

Dec 4, 2015

So, this is CJ Cummings. He is 15 years old and he is currently the youngest competitor at the IWF Wold Championships being held in Houston this week.

That was a video from the 2015 U.S. Senior Nationals where he broke the youth, Jr, and senior men's American Records in the Clean and Jerk with 175 kg (386 lbs) while weighing in at only 69 kg (152 lbs) and standing at 5-foot-2.

He is currently only 3 kg away from breaking the youth world record in that event. Again, being only 15 and having another two years to break that record, it's safe to say that one will fall as well. When you add both lifts together from a meet, the clean and jerk, and the snatch, you have a lifters total. He also happens to only be 6 kg away from the youth world record total as well. Another record likely to fall to the young American within the next two years.

In a sport where the United States has historically performed poorly, Cummings is the country's first real hope in a long time to potentially develop into a world class threat on the international stage. It has been more than 30 years since the U.S. have had an Olympic medalist in this sport.

In the mean time, he has a few years of high school left to worry about. Keep an eye on him, he just may help inspire a new generation of Americans who want to lift big.

Post by:

Jarrett Smith
Merritt Athletic Clubs
General Manager
p 410.590.7711
7585 Buckingham Blvd.
Hanover, MD 21076

 

Topics: weights