Harrison Maurus is part of an exciting crop of young, talented, and rapidly improving American weightlifters under 17. Along with CJ Cummings, the 15 year old Maurus turns heads on social media and the platform, posting lifts and totals that crush American Records with abandon and may soon – given the right competition – give Youth World Records a real shot.
Maurus also earned silver medals in the snatch, clean & jerk, and total at the 2016 Junior Pan American Championships, where he snatched 137kg, clean & jerked 170kg, and totaled 307kg. He also took a great shot at a new Youth world record in the clean & jerk, which we’ve embedded at the bottom of the article.
What caught our attention most recently, though, wasn’t Maurus chain of PRs or eyes-forward approach to training. (Don’t worry, we’ve got videos of him lifting heavy things below.) It’s actually a video from September 2011, where an impossibly young looking Harrison Maurus completes a Starting Strength-style workout under the watchful eye of his coach. Harrison credits coach Kevin Simons with the bulk of his success.
If you’ve ever doubted the impact of consistent work and dedication (and, yes, some serious genetic talent probably doesn’t hurt), look no further than this video and compare it to the progress Maurus has made over the last four years and change.
(H/t to Jay Rhodes for bringing the old video to light. Video from Kevin Simons.)
Now compare that to early February 2016, where he makes a crisp clean and barely misses the jerk at 182 kilos. Clearly, he’s come a long way from squatting sets of 5 at 70-80 pounds.
Next, check out this video from the 2016 Junior National Championships, where Harrison smokes a 175 kilo clean & jerk at 77 kilos body weight en route to several national records. Video from the always spectacular Hookgrip.
It’ll be exciting to see how lifters like Maurus, CJ Cummings, and others progress over the next few years. It’s worth noting these two young men each have around two years left competing in Youth categories and nearly FIVE competing as Junior lifters.
The first American World Record holders in 40+ years could be practicing their craft as we speak – after algebra homework, of course.
Speaking of which, we’ve embedded Maurus’ 184kg clean & jerk attempt from the 2016 Junior Pan Ams below. He was THIS close to setting a new Youth World record (though that was reset later in the same competition to 186kg by a Colombian lifter).
