As he works his way to the heaviest level in squatting, the top set, Alexander Holden, junior, thinks to himself “this is hard.” But as he finally moves the weight, he feels relief, and everything clicks.
Holden participated in the first-ever weightlifting competition held at MHS on Wednesday, March 4. Weightlifters from all four Rockwood high schools competed. Following the competition, Holden found out that he placed 8th overall out of 90 lifters, earned second place in the squat event and broke the school record for squatting with 325 lbs.
Holden has been weightlifting for two years, ever since he discovered it after joining track.
“We were lifting weights for track, and then something clicked right there,” Holden said. “I just kind of fell in love with it.”
Holden said that his mom has always been against him doing sports because she wants him to focus on his grades and she doesn’t want him to get hurt. He said this competition was an outlet for him, and helped him to show her that he could manage his time with schoolwork as well as compete and weightlift.
“Just to be able to do this lifting competition, to show her that I’m capable of doing something, that was kind of the goal there,” he said.
He said that she was scared at first when she found out he was planning on competing because she didn’t know much about weightlifting and she wanted to be sure that he would be safe.
So Holden’s mom talked to the weightlifting coach to try to understand what the competition would be like.
“She was able to just get some insight, and ease herself,” Holden said. “The night before, she talked to me, and she said ‘be careful, know your limits, but perform well.’”
He said he plans on joining a team and doing competitions when he goes to college.
“It’s definitely not going away,” Holden said.
Charles Malloy, P.E. teacher, agreed that Holden’s weightlifting story is not over.
He said if Holden put his mind to it, he could have a potential career weightlifting in the Olympics.
“There’s definitely some opportunity for him just based on his adaptability to learn a new skill quickly and get competent in that lift and then just how strong he is for his body weight already at a young age,” Malloy said. “I think he has a high ceiling and he could definitely take it a long way if he chooses.”
Malloy said he first saw a spark in Holden when he transferred to MHS his sophomore year and took the Intro to Weightlifting class. Since then, he said Holden is oftentimes in his Ac Lab trying to grow in his skill.
“The Weight Room is probably his favorite place out of the whole school and his favorite time every day,” Malloy said. “So, whenever it comes to lifting, it’s more about managing him doing way too much every single day compared to trying to get him to put in the work.”
Malloy said Holden already lifted two times his body weight, and he expects him to do even more his senior year.
“Next year Alex is probably going to break more records,” Malloy said. “I think he’ll finish as one of the top lifters in the whole district.”
