New American Record For Kendrick Farris

This is what is so fascinating to me when it comes to Olympic Lifting. I can watch this 3rd lift a hundred times and still not be satisfied. Not only is it an unfathomable amount of weight that Kendrick lifts (464#) but it is the demons he must have been calming moments before this lift that make it so impressive. There are not many individual sports out there where your success or failure rests solely at your hands but Olympic Lifting is exactly that. To think of what had to go into setting this American Record is pretty staggering. Not only did his training have to be perfect leading up to the event but the execution of the day had to be perfect as well. Olympic Weightlifters get 3 attemps at the Snatch and 3 attempts at the Clean and Jerk. Sure, they can hit as many warm-up sets in the back as they would like, but only 3 of each when it comes time to perform. I try and imagine how the day must have played out for him, warming up in the back, waiting to get his opening attempt at the Snatch….probably not even thinking about the Clean and Jerk at the time. Putting all of his effort on the 3 Snatch attempts before having to shift gears and move to the Clean and Jerk. I think of the mental discipline these lifters possess to be able to brain dump anything negative that may have happened during the previous lift and be able to focus only on what they can control, their next lift. As CrossFitters, we all do it, as soon as the workout ends, we think of a million things we could have done differently to perform a little better. Olympic Weightlifters really don't have that luxury, they have to be able to move on to the next lift and forget anything that may have happened only minutes prior. Walking onto that stage in front of the cameras and judges and seeing the bar loaded with enough weight to break the American Record, probably what has consumed his thoughts for months or maybe even years prior to this. Having to be able to control his heart rate as he stands up with the weight from the Clean and then takes his last breath before the Jerk…..a hundred different things that need to go right in order to make this lift, his margin for error almost zero, and he sticks it. I can only guess at what it must have felt like as he stood up and saw the white lights of a successful lift and knowing that no American in his weight class had ever lifted that amount of weight. I think we can all learn from the mental toughness and discipline that Olympic Weightlifters possess and it is not surprising that the sport is making a comeback and more people are taking notice to the athletes that make up this incredible sport.