Samantha Calhoun has been competing in the -63kg weight class for the past four years and has been extremely impressive in that time. She made her competitive powerlifting debut at the age of 25 on February 13th, 2016 at the Southern Powerlifting Federation (SPF) Heart of a Lion Powerlifting Meet where she finished first.
Her most recent win came this past March at the North American Powerlifting Federation (NAPF) Arnold Grand Prix by SBD where her gold medal was obtained by competition bests in every lift:
- Squat — 180kg/397lb
- Bench Press — 107.5kg/237lb
- Deadlift — 227.5kg/501.5lb
- Total — 515kg/1,135lb
Her training since then has not slowed down. Most recently she shared a post on her Instagram page of a pulling a massive 193kg/425lb for a set of four without straps — that’s three times her competition bodyweight. Check it out for yourself below:
[Related: Jen Thompson’s favorite tip for a stronger bench press.]
Aside from lifting heavier than she ever had in any competition at the Arnold Grand Prix, the 29-year-old Calhoun’s most notable performance came in 2018 at the United States Powerlifting 2018 Raw National Championships where she took first place after pulling a clutch 225.5kg/497lb deadlift to end Jen Thompson’s amazing ten year undefeated streak at national meets. That deadlift also set an unofficial world record in the process.
Speaking of world records, Calhoun currently holds the International Powerlifting Federation (IPF) world record deadlift of 221.5kg/488lb from her silver medal performance at the 2018 IPF 6th World Classic Championships — Jen Thompson took the gold.
Calhoun’s next meet will likely be the IPF World Classic Powerlifting Championships which were originally set to begin on April 26th but have since been postponed to October. Calhoun has voiced her difficulty in adjusting to the longer prep:
View this post on Instagram
“I have to constantly remind myself that I am indeed training for Worlds. The sense or urgency of training just isn’t there. A prep that was suppose to be 14 weeks turned into who even knows. It’s so far away to even begin to countdown. However, I keep showing up and these sessions will compound on each other. I recognize my privilege to be able to train and I will not take these moments for granted.”
Assuming Calhoun takes full advantage of the additional training time before Worlds, we could very well see her not only hit new personal bests, but new world records as well.
Feature image from Samantha Calhoun’s Instagram page: @sam.s.calhoun
