A high-school sophomore in Beaufort, S.C., Cummings lives with his parents, trains an hour or two a day and studies enough to make the honor roll occasionally. When asked if he hopes to travel with the U.S. team to next year’s Rio Olympics, he didn’t hesitate. “Yes, sir,” he said.
The second half of that response pleased his mother, Savasah Cummings, more than the first. “We’ve always told our children that manners will take you farther than money,” she said.
Cummings belongs to a burgeoning force of Olympic-style weightlifters in the U.S. At USA Weightlifting, the sport’s national governing body, membership has jumped to more than 22,000 from only 9,000 in 2012, said Michael Massik, its chief executive. A decade ago, it barely stood at 5,000. “We’re seeing that kind of phenomenal growth in all categories—youth, junior and senior,” Massik said.
In weight rooms across America, a cultural shift is taking place. For a long time, the weight room has been the province of power lifters, not Olympic-style lifters. For power lifters, the measure of an athlete is how much he can bench press—something not included in Olympic competitions.
Olympians execute the snatch and clean and jerk, movements arguably requiring more overall athleticism. During the clean and jerk, for instance, the athlete lifts a barbell off the floor and ultimately overhead, requiring balance and full-body strength, and particularly powerful legs.