CJ Cummings raises the bar again with 2 more weightlifting records

Another meet, another set of weightlifting records for Beaufort teen CJ Cummings.

The reigning Youth World and Junior World champion broke two of his own American records Saturday, clearing 183 kilograms (403 pounds) in the clean and jerk that left him with a total weight of 321 kg (707 pounds) at the American Open in Orlando, Fla.

Those marks also exceed the youth world records Cummings reset earlier this year. He lifted 182 kg in October at the Youth World Championships in Malaysia, and his total of 317 kg there matched the record first established in June at the Junior Worlds in Tbilisi, Georgia.

“It was quite a night,” Cummings told a USA Weightlifting liaison in a brief Facebook Live interview that recapped a “six-for-six” evening in which each of his lifts — three per category — were successful.

Cummings, 16, also set a personal best Saturday night with a snatch of 138 kg (304 pounds), which also went into the record books as the new American youth and junior record.

It added up to a dominating performance on the platform in Orlando, where he swept all three gold medals and his total weight finished 45 kg (99 pounds) ahead of runner-up Aaron Addison.

It also happened to be Cummings’ first official competition with his own signature shoe, manufactured by Reebok under its Legacy Lifter model. The teen was a consultant on fit and features and has been training in a prototype for months.

Saturday’s performance capped a stellar second half of 2016 for Cummings that took off after coming short last May in a longshot quest for the United States’ only weightlifting entry into the Rio Olympics.

Since then, Cummings has broken American and youth world records six times, matched one of those that he broke previously and racked up nine gold medals between the Youth Worlds, Junior Worlds and American Open.

Before June, the last American to break any sort of world record was Robin Byrd-Goad in 1994, coming at the women’s junior level. The last record broken by a U.S. male came in 1970, when Artie Dreschler also did it at the junior level.

This story was originally published December 10, 2016 at 10:03 PM with the headline "CJ Cummings raises the bar again with 2 more weightlifting records."