CJ CUMMINGS: National Weightlifting Champion
Beaufort’s own CJ (Clarence Junior) Cummings, the weightlifting phenomenon, has done it again. The fourteen year old athlete is the first of his age in the history of USA Weightlifting to break a national record. In fact CJ recently brought home three medal s from the 2014 USA Weightlifting National Championships in the 62K weight class, a Silver in the Snatch, a Silver Overall and the Gold in Clean and Jerk with a 153kg lift.
Early Rise
CJ’s rise to prominence in his sport has been happening since he first started lifting at age eleven with the Team Beaufort Olympic Weightlifting, led by Coach Ray Jones. For those unfamiliar with this sport, this is how it works. In Olympic style weightlifting, the athlete attempts a single lift of a barbell loaded with weight plates. At competition, the athletes are judged on two lifts, the snatch and the clean and jerk. They get three attempts for each type of lift, and the combined total of the highest two successful lifts determines the overall result within a bodyweight category. There are several body weight categories, currently CJ is in the 62K group.
As an early indication of his abilities, at age eleven CJ clean & jerked double his body weight. At age twelve he was the youngest lifter ever to qualify and compete at the American Open Weightlifting Championships. How did he do? Against all the men in his class he placed second.
At the Pan American Championships held last year, the then thirteen year old CJ was awarded the title Best Overall Lifter. He also set new records in the 15 and Under category. These accomplishments caused USA Weightlifting to declare CJ “The strongest 13 year old in the world.”
CJ’s abilities have flummoxed the sports community. He is so far above any other weightlifter that he was tested at the Armstrong State University Biodynamics and Human Performance Center to see if he had anything different that they could quantify and measure. Using high speed cameras and motion sensors, Bob LeFavi ( sports medicine professor and coach of Team Savannah’s weightlifters) was unable to isolate anything different or unusual about CJ. CJ said the testing was “cool”.
National Champion
At the 2014 USA Weightlifting National Championships, held July 17-20 in Salt Lake City, more than 400 athletes and 200 coaches from all over the United States participated, making the event the largest Nationals Championships ever held. Team Beaufort was there and again CJ made headlines.
CJ broke the Senior American record for the clean and jerk in the 62kg category, accomplishing the extraordinary achievement of breaking a Senior American record. CJ’s lift of 153kg in the clean and jerk broke LeGrand Sakamaki’s previous Senior American record (152.5kg), a record set in 2002. This lift also broke CJ’s own record in the 14-15-year old division Youth American record in the clean and jerk. Not only is CJ breaking adult records, he is breaking his own youth records simultaneously.
To put this feat in perspective, the 5’2”, 136 pound CJ lifted 373.3 pounds (153 kilos) from the floor to chest level and then extended it above his head until his arms were straight before lowering it to the ground. The average refrigerator weighs approximately 250- 300 pounds, so what CJ did was the equivalent of lifting up, and holding overhead, a fully stocked refrigerator. That’s a gold medal performance at any age.
Recently Beaufort Lifestyle caught up with CJ.
BL: First of all, congratulations on your record setting win at the USA Weightlifting Championship.
CJ: Thank you.
BL: You broke the record on your third attempt. What were you thinking on the third try?
CJ : I was thinking ‘Keep focus. I got to make it!’
BL: And what did you think when you knew you had it?
CJ: I held it up for one or two seconds, and I had my feet lined up, so when I heard the crowd cheering I knew I had it.
BL:: What are your pre competition rituals or routines?
CJ: We warm up by lifting. I start at 50 pounds, go to 60, 70, 80, up to 140 pounds. On that day I went up to 135 in warm up.
BL: What do eat before a completion? What about after?
CJ: We have two hours after weigh in when we can eat, so after weigh in I ate Wendy’s.
BL: What does your long time coach, Coach Ray Jones, tell you before you compete?
CJ: At the competition, Coach said, “Go have fun’! At practice he tells me to think about it, to visualize each lift in practice like it is in a competition.”
BL: What did you do to celebrate after the meet?
CJ: We went to a Brazilian steakhouse.
BL: What do you do to kick back and relax?
CJ:I just sit down, listen to music. I like all types and genres. I play video games, Battlefield 4 is my favorite.
BL: You have travelled to some pretty far places- where have you been?
CJ:I went to Uzbekistan, which is in Russia. It was fun but the traffic was crazy. I also went to Peru, and the traffic there was crazy too- I don’t think they have stop signs! My favorite place in the United States was Utah. I would like to go back there.
BL: So you must meet people from all over the country and the world.
CJ: You see the same groups at meets, we are all friends. I root for kids from Florida, Georgia, Arizona and California- all over.
BL: How do the kids at school treat you now? Do they try to get you to lift stuff?
CJ: No not really!
BL: Does the weightlifter have chores at home?
CJ: Oh yes, I still have chores! I have to keep my room clean, and my brother Omar and I take turns taking out the trash and doing the dishes, we also have to feed the chickens and if the lawn needs to be mowed, one of us mows and the other uses the weed eater.
BL: Everyone is talking about the Olympics in 2016, in Rio. What do you think about being an Olympian?
CJ: It would be huge.
Family Life
Unspoiled by his athletic success, CJ is a modest and polite young man. Born and raised in Beaufort, he lives with his family, father Clarence Senior (who works for the SCDOT) , mother Savasah,(a teacher) 15 year old brother Omar, 26 year old sister Crystal, and three year old niece, Christin on Lady’s Island. All the Cummings children are or have been athletes. Omar is also a record holding weightlifter and Crystal was in fact the first of the family to weight lift, which lead the way for CJ and Omar. When asked what she was thinking when CJ broke the record at the national meet, Savasah Cummings said “When he did that I said YES! Okay this is what he came here for- and he has it!”
Coach Ray Jones is the driving force behind Team Beaufort Olympic Weightlifting, and has been guiding CJ, and all the other Team Beaufort lifters, since day one. Savasah Cummings says, “Coach Ray Jones is awesome. What can I say- he is family. I just can’t say enough about him.” Regarding CJ’s potential to be an Olympic weight lifter at the 2016 games in Rio de Janeiro Brazil she says, “I guess it hasn’t hit me yet. But it would be amazing!”
National Attention
CJ’s accomplishments have been attracting attention within and beyond the weightlifting community. You can see videos of CJ’s lifts on YouTube, and every local news outlet has run a story on him. In fact, The Washington Post came to Lady’s Island and not only wrote a lengthy feature story about him, they also produced a video. But none of this attention has changed this amazing young man, who would rather work out than talk about himself. CJ has his eyes firmly set on the next completion and is keeping it simple with one lift at a time.
Story by CINDY REID
Photography by SUSAN DELOACH
