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A Saskatoon teen is preparing for one of his biggest weightlifting competitions of his life.
This upcoming weekend, Dryden Parchewsky will compete in the Junior Pan American Games in Paraguay – the biggest competition for young weightlifters across North and South America.
For Parchewsky, he’s come a long way since starting the sport eight years ago.
When he was younger, he tagged along with his dad, who did CrossFit. Parchewsky wanted to be like his dad.
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“I slowly started doing the warm-ups with everybody,” Parchewsky explained. “I eventually started at the gym in weightlifting – it was always lots of fun.”
Growing up, he played hockey, and he initially used weightlifting to help improve his game.
“Then slowly and slowly, I started getting better and better at weightlifting and only a little bit better at hockey,” he added. “So I was like, ‘Oh, maybe I want to keep on doing this weightlifting thing.’”
In a tournament held in Cuba in March, he pulled off a snatch of 138 kilograms (304 pounds) and a clean and jerk of 164 kilograms (361 pounds), which qualified him for the Pan Am Games.
You might think that during his preparation, he’d be going for the biggest lifts he can, but Parchewsky says the prep is a lot different than you’d think.
“Lots of it’s mental. You want to make sure you’re really focused and a part of that is the food. It’s not like super negative to eat a bunch of crazy food, but for me it really helps to dial in my food, just for the mental aspect of it,” he said.
He lifts five or six times a week.
“But as you get closer and closer to the competition, it’s less fatiguing work and it’s higher intensity – more specific work rather than strength,” Parchewsky added.
Parchewsky doesn’t have any lofty goals for this tournament. He just wants to have fun and to do his best at the meet – but still has big goals for the future.
He thinks the “really cool” part of weightlifting is that it’s an international sport.
“There’s athletes from all over the world in Africa, Asia and Europe,” he said.
“I love travelling around and going to places and learning new things. And then, of course, there’s always the Olympics that you’d like to look at. Hopefully I’ll be looking at that in a few years.”
“I think anything’s possible if I stay healthy and really stay focused and dialled in,” Parchewsky added.
