A pintsized schoolgirl who can lift weights of 80kg has revealed she just ‘clears her mind and does it.’
Little Rory van Ulft, seven, from Ottowa, is just four foot tall and started weightlifting just after her fifth birthday after she was scouted at a gymnastics class.
She was recently crowned USA weightlifting under-11 and under-13s Youth National Champion in the 30kg weight class, making her the youngest US youth national champion in history, with her father Cavan revealing: ‘It would be fair to say Rory is the strongest little girl in the world.’
Meanwhile he insisted the unusual hobby is safe for his daughter, explaining: ‘Her safety is everyone’s top priority. She progresses in her training for both sports carefully and methodically.’
Cavan said: ‘Based on her current Sinclair total, Rory is not only the strongest seven-year-old in the world.
‘She is likely also the strongest seven-year-old girl or boy who has ever lived, for whom there are verifiable competition results.’But Rory sees herself as a gymnast first and foremost, spending nine hours per week training on that compared with four hours on weightlifting.
After she won her first gymnastics medal – a bronze on balance beam at a local competition – she told her parents: ‘I prefer gymnastics to weightlifting, because in gymnastics I don’t have to lift anything over my head.’
The schoolgirl can snatch 32kg and clean and jerk 42kg as well as squatting 61kg, and deadlifting 80kg using an Olympic women’s bar.Rory goes to school full-time and is in third grade, equivalent to Year four in the UK with Cavan explaining: ‘She is very intelligent and is able to really focus and interpret direction. ‘It is one of the factors that makes her coachable at such a young age.’
She also says that kids don’t bully her, but believes it’s because she is well liked rather than feared for her strength. ‘Other kids don’t pick on me,’ she said. ‘But not because they think I’m strong.’
Asked how she is kept safe while lifting heavy weights, he added: ‘Rory has knowledgeable coaches in both weightlifting and gymnastics.
‘She has both a family doctor and a sports medicine paediatrician looking after her.’
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Offering advice to other girls concerning taking up weightlifting, Rory said: ‘Don’t ever think about the weight. Just think about your form.’
She must be from another planet! ?