Max Shethar is a 17-year-old powerlifter who began his competitive powerlifting career at the age of 15 — when he was already able to squat 260kg/575lb. He is the youngest powerlifter to ever deadlift 327.5kg/722lb in competition. In the short time since his competitive debut at the 2017 USA Powerlifting (USAPL) Washington State Championships in the Teen 1 division in the -93kg weight class, he has competed four times across three weight classes, in three divisions, and won gold at every one of those meets.
Shethar’s most recent sanctioned meet was in the Junior division at the United States Powerlifting Association (USPA) Drug Tested Washington State Open in October of 2019 in the -140kg class — he weighed in at 276lb, just 1lb over the -125kg class limit. But his most notable win came a year earlier on October 11th, 2018 at the USAPL Raw Nationals in the -120kg class where he secured these stats:
- Squat — 265kg/584lb
- Bench Press — 162.5kg/358lb
- Deadlift — 287.5kg/634lb
- Total — 715kg/1,576lb
Since then, Shethar has surpassed the weight of all his competition bests in training. Check out one of his most recent personal records below via his Instagram page — an enormous 283.5kg/625lb squat double:
[Related: Check out 17-year-old Jackson Powell squat 885lb.]
He did something very similar with his deadlift double PR that he hit one day later. Check out the massive 297kg/655lb deadlift double on a stiff bar —a significant 18kg/40lb PR — in what appears to be a garage gym from Shethar’s Instagram page:
Shethar is now training at -125kg and his current PRs for the big three lifts are pretty staggering for a powerlifter as young as he is:
- Squat — 295kg/650lb
- Bench Press — 190kg/420lb
- Deadlift — 340kg/750lb
It’s not clear when Shethar’s next sanctioned event will take place, but if he continues to move weight this heavy in the gym, his unblemished record is likely to stay in tact.
Feature image from Max Shethar’s Instagram page: @the_one_rep_max