Saw this while traveling through SC today!! Warning, another B.E.L.D.P.!
AKA: BigEasy Long Detailed Post!
Taken from
The STATE Newspaper, Columbia, SC.
Link to original article
here.
Photo of the day: Fifteen-year-old Jenna Bussard works her way up to squatting 410 pounds at Sportsgym in Irmo.
Definition of girl power
15-year-old weightlifter Jenna Bussard is stronger than most men
By ERNIE TRUBIANO Staff Writer
Remember the name Jenna Bussard.
“She will dominate the world,” said Richard Sorin, owner of Sportsgym of Irmo, where Bussard trains as a weightlifter.
Barely 15 and in serious training for just nine months, Bussard hoists more weight than most fully developed male weightlifters.
“I’ve been in this business since the early ’80s, and I’ve seen some of the strongest people in the world,” Sorin said. “Jenna is an amazing girl.”
Bussard, a sophomore at Lugoff-Elgin High School, already has broken national records by more than 100 pounds. She set three national records for her age in her first competition.
Bussard was profiled in the June edition of Powerlifting USA magazine, and will be featured soon in Power Magazine.
She began her journey into sports by playing nose guard last year as a freshman for the Lugoff-Elgin junior varsity football team.
“I went out for football because I love a challenge,” Bussard said. “I wanted to defy what people said about girls not being able to play.
“I had the support of my coaches and teammates.”
Homer Carraway, who coached Bussard last year on the JV team, called Bussard “strong for her age and size” before she left football to concentrate on powerlifting.
“I’d line her up one-on-one with the boys, and she could whip some of them,” Carraway said.
Bussard started lifting weights to smash the sugar-and-spice stereotype. First, she lifted some at the school weight room, then Bussard enlisted the help of Sophia Ardis, a personal trainer.
By taking up a strenuous physical activity, Bussard said she also sought to lose some body weight “because I’m about half muscle, half fat.”
Bussard uses the treadmill for cardiovascular exercise.
“As far as her proportions go, she is a very large gal; she’s stronger than the men in the gym, not by a little, but by a lot,” Sorin said.
When Ardis realized Bussard would do more with a weight specialist, she called the USC athletics department. USC recommended Sorin, who also makes and sells weights from his Sorinex Exercise Equipment business adjacent to the Sportsgym.
In her first lift for Sorin and trainer Stephen Powell, Bussard bench-pressed 185 pounds, dead-lifted 200 and squatted 225.
The effort convinced Sorin to sponsor Bussard.
A few months later, in her first competition in March, Bussard boosted those numbers to 235, 385, 385.
In training sessions since, she increased the numbers to 245, 400 and 450. She can dead lift 400 three times in a set.
Bussard said she squatted 410 pounds at a meet in Tennessee, to exceed a world record. But the meet had been previously designated as one in which records would not be recognized.
In her latest competition, the World National Powerlifting Federation Nationals in Atlanta, Bussard benched 245, dead lifted 395 and squatted 440.
Bussard, who will compete next in October, admits her genes help her strength.
“Everybody in my family is big,” said Bussard whose brother Jimmy, 18, is about her size at 5-foot-9, 280 pounds.
Bussard said she does not believe in taking nutritional supplements.
“They’re not allowed in my federation, but I’m not into that stuff, anyway.”
Sorin said his protege shows remarkable concentration to be so young.
“At a young age, the mind wanders, but Jenna has been focused from the first day she came in the gym,” Sorin said. “Her increases from training have been almost magical, but she has the drive and determination to do it.”
Although powerlifting varies in technique from Olympic-style lifting, Sorin said Bussard could make the Olympics some day.
“I love powerlifting, and I can see I can improve a lot more,” Bussard said. “It’s hard work, but it pays off at competition time. I knew I’d really like lifting, but I didn’t think I’d be this good at it.”
Big numbers
A look at the weight Jenna Bussard can lift
• Bench press 245
• Dead lift 400
• Squat 450
Please Scroll Down to See Forums Below 
