This year, history and social studies teacher Mr. Linboom had the opportunity to go to the Weightlifting World Championship in Las Vegas, Nevada. For the last few years, Mr. Linboom has been competing at local and national weightlifting competitions, and has qualified for the World Championship multiple times. Since this year was the first year that the event was in the United States, he took the trip out to compete and represent America.
Mr. Linboom describes his journey up to this point by saying, “This competition in particular was humbling, but it was really neat. I had never been to Vegas before, so that was fun. And on top of that, I made a lot of good friends there, and it was very cool to be in an international setting with all of these different countries.” He pointed out further that he has always had an interest in the Olympics, and the idea of seeing people represent their country by doing what they excel at. Regarding that aspect of the competition, he claimed, “I loved the idea of wearing your country’s uniform, competing for Team USA, and I always wanted to do that, so when I had the opportunity, it was really cool to have that uniform that said USA.”
Mr. Linboom spoke on his previous weightlifting experience, regarding his personal records for the two lifts that are present in this event. His PR for the “snatch,” an exercise that involves using momentum to lift the bar and weights above your head, was 95 kilograms, or 210 pounds. For the second exercise, the “clean and jerk,” which is a less momentum-based version of the previous exercise, his personal best is 126 kilograms, which would be 280 pounds.
The competition is divided by age and weight, meaning that Mr. Linboom was competing against other men around 50 years old and 207 pounds. Regarding his abilities at his age, he stated “There’s a lot of young people that can beat my numbers any day of the week, but when you get into the older folks, it’s different. So it just turns out that a lot of guys my age have gotten weaker and I just never did, you know. I’m still doing what I’ve always done. I can’t compete against younger guys, not even close, but against the 50 and older crowd, turns out I can hold my own.”
This prompted the discussion to turn to the importance of continuous workout and self discipline if you seek to do something like this well into your life. Trying at 50 to re-ignite a spark for a sport you had in high school isn’t going to work very well, but working hard from high school up to the 50 year mark, as well as being supported by genetics and diet, is going to lead to a much better outcome.
Mr. Linboom has been lifting competitively since 2016, and has since qualified for and completed at multiple national competitions, and qualified for the world championship three times as well (this year being number four). He has made first place runner up at the National Championship several years in a row. Despite his statement that “it’s the first time in my life I’ve ever finished in last place,” Mr. Linboom acknowledges how impressive and amazing it is to have qualified for the World Championship and been able to compete alongside a group of other men who are representing their countries.
When asked what he had to say to anyone who might want to get into a competitive sport like him, Mr. Linboom had this to say: “Weightlifting is the ultimate patience sport. And so that’s kind of my thing going forward, I’m just looking to make any little improvement. If I lift for another year and only go up one kilo, fine, because I’m still going in the right direction. As I get older, you know, it’s patience, patience, patience. One week doesn’t matter, even a month doesn’t matter, but when you start getting together six to eight months, and then two to three years, over time it does make a difference.” With this advice in hand, Mr. Linboom encourages those who are interested to pursue their athletic hobbies in order to maybe reach the World Championship themselves.
