At just 18 years old, Colombian weightlifting Jeison Lopez has established himself as one of the Western Hemisphere’s top strength athletes. Fresh off a victory at the 2017 Pan American Weightlifting Championships — where he set a new Junior and Senior(!) Pan American Record snatch with 162kg — Lopez is back to training, and new PRs were sure to come.
We just didn’t think they’d come this quickly.
Below, Lopez snatches an incredible 170kg, a full 8 kilograms over his Pan American Record, and 2.5 kilograms under the Junior World Record set at the 2004 Olympics by eventual champion Taner Sagir. (For reference, the Senior World Record is 177kg, which was lifted by Chinese weightlifter Lu Xiaojun at the 2016 Rio Olympics.)
Of course, it’s likely Lopez was a bit above competition bodyweight for this lift, but it’s still impressive nonetheless.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BX4H10KAWcJ/
Below, we’ve roughly translated Lopez’s caption from Spanish to English via Google translate, though we think the sentiment still comes across:
I’ve always said that a warrior never gives up And that the worst battles are for the best soldiers. Despite the adversities of life and the circumstances I have been surpassing happened at a slow but sure pace. I have been fulfilling each of my dreams one of them was to do 170 Kg of [SNATCH]. I am very happy because God is perfect and has put me to the test but I still struggle because I am LOPEZ and God is with us ..! AMEN
[Want more of Jeison Lopez? Check out his 5 second pause snatch here!]
Interestingly, Lopez — the reigning Junior World Champion — competed in Senior international competition for the first time at this year’s Pan Ams, and he practically dominated his weight class at that competition.
Jeison Lopez is certainly an exciting lifter to watch, and all eyes will be on him at the upcoming 2017 World Weightlifting Championships in Anaheim, California. Could he make a run at a Senior world title?
Featured image: @jeison_lopez99 on Instagram
