UTM weight-lifter a contender for the PanAm Games
Chris Di Pietrantonio might be better suited than most students for lugging heavy textbooks back and forth to class. The second-year U of T Mississauga biochemistry student is Ontario’s new junior Olympic weight-lifting champion, and recently ranked third in his weight class in a national competition.
The 19-year-old Georgetown native first started working out in grade 10 with high school friends. He competed nationally in body building championships at 17, and then moved on the power lifting, choosing UTM, in part, because of the high-performance weight facilities in the Recreation, Athletics and Wellness Centre.
In his first year at UTM, program assistant Darren Turner spotted Di Pietrantonio in the RAWC weight room and suggested he try Olympic-style lifting. While power lifting requires brute strength, Olympic-style lifting requires athletes to use explosive movements to quickly heft weights above their heads.
Chris was intrigued, but not convinced it was the sport for him. “It was pretty intimidating to throw weight over your head,” he says. “What if it falls?”
It wasn’t until Di Pietrantonio caught the attention of Canadian weight-lifting champion George Kobaladze that he was finally convinced to give the sport a try. Kobaladze, who was training at the RAWC, liked the explosive and dynamic abilities Di Pietrantonio demonstrated in the weight room. The attention of the high-profile weight-lifter was the final incentive Di Pietrantonio needed to find his new passion.
Ten months ago, Di Pietrantonio switched to Olympic-style training and he hasn’t looked back. “I like the athletic component. It requires a lot of speed,” he says. “A lot of people don’t really understand the sport—it’s not just brute strength. It requires a lot of technique.”
That technique can take months, or even years to master, but according to teammate Richard Gonsalves, Di Pietrantonio is a “natural” who picked up the lifting technique in record time. Gonsalves, a UTM alumni, owns the Sabaria School of Weightlifting where he and Di Pietrantonio train with former UTM weight-lifting coach Steve Sandor. “You can tell when a person has good body awareness,” Gonsalves says. “Chris has that.”
Di Pietrantonio puts in about 15 hours of training every week, including three sessions with the Sabaria team, and another two at the RAWC’s facilities. Away from the gym, focus is just as intense. He spends time at home watching and re-watching videos of champion lifters, slowing down the video to analyze lifting techniques.
“If you don’t have the technique, you can’t throw the weight. You have to learn to explode at the right time,” he says. “I’m always trying to get there quicker.”
Di Pietrantonio currently competes in the 85kg weight class. In mid-January, he placed third for his weight class at the national Canadian Junior Weightlifing Championships in Winnipeg, lifting 283kg and achieving two personal bests—122kg in the “snatch” event and 161kg in the “clean and jerk”. He says his ultimate goal is to lift 340kg, but that he would need to gain more body mass to help achieve the momentum to lift a heavier weight.
Di Pietrantonio says the lifting does make him tired, but says he loves the sport and looks forward to his time in the gym. “It’s not something I’m going to do—it’s something that I have to do,” he says.
He says his ultimate dream is to represent Canada at the 2020 Olympics. In the meantime, he has his sights set on competing in the World Junior Championships in Poland in June 2015. Closer to home, he will compete in the Canadian Senior Weightlifing Championships, which will be held at UTM in May. Those results could determine whether Di Pietrantonio, Gonsalves and UTM alumnae and Sabaria teammate Amanda Braddock will represent Canada in the Pan Am Games in July.
Watch Chris Di Pietrantonio lift 160kg at 2014 Ontario Junior Championships >