SC’s CJ Cummings ready to compete in Tokyo, youngest US weightlifter in the Olympics
After a year’s delay, C.J. Cummings is ready for his Olympic moment.
The 21-year-old Beaufort High School grad is days away from competing in the Tokyo Olympics. Cummings had planned to compete in the Olympics last year, but the games were postponed because of COVID-19.
He attempted to make the team as a 15-year-old but came up short during qualifying. But now he is ready to shine.
“I am here now, ready to compete,” Cummings told The Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette from Hawaii before a workout last week. “Just embracing the moment. I get to be with the best athletes from all over the world and represent my country. I get to share that moment with them. It is going to be a pretty amazing moment and a memorable moment.”
Cummings is the first Olympic weightlifter from South Carolina. He joins Beaufort boxing great Joe Frazier, who won gold at the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo. Cummings has a shot at medaling in his first Olympics.
The Associated Press projected Cummings to win a silver medal in the 73 kg (161 pound) in its predictions. The U.S. hasn’t won a medal in men’s weightlifting since Mario Martinez won silver in 1984.
In May, Cummings learned he would be part of the United States’ eight-member men’s and women squad. Cummings, who just turned 21 last month, is the youngest member of the team.
Cummings arrived in Hawaii on July 14 with the other members of Team USA, was scheduled to fly to Tokyo on Wednesday, and on Friday will take part in the Opening Ceremonies.
Cummings’ event is set for July 28 at 6:50 a.m. EDT. Cummings’ sister Crystal, said they might have a watch party in South Carolina since no spectators are allowed at the Olympics.
After Cummings competes, “everyone is going to go to Hawaii and celebrate my achievements and have a good time,” he said.
The journey begins
Cummings wasn’t the first member of his family to get involved in weightlifting. Crystal, who is more than a decade older than C.J., started working with trainer Ray Jones during the early stages of Team Beaufort weightlifting program.
Jones, a weightlifting staple in the Lowcountry, has two weightlifters competing in the Olympics. In addition to Cummings, Yemassee resident Mahassen Hala Fattouh Paiva is competing for the Lebanon women’s weightlifting team.
Crystal started weightlifting when she was 9 but gave it up for basketball and softball in high school. Still, Crystal got brothers C.J. and Omar interested in the sport.
She thought it would be good for her brothers to start working with weights to help with their other sports. Both played football and basketball and were good for their age group. So driving around one day, the three stopped at Jones’ facility.
She didn’t tell her parents.
“When I took Omar and C.J,, I took them against our parents’ consent,” Crystal said. “I asked my parents if they would let them try weightlifting, and my father was like ‘No.’ He said they need to focus on football. That was their thing.
“So, they trained a week or two before I told my parents.”
Omar set two American records and won two bronze medals at the 2015 Youth World Championships. But he eventually focused on football, playing for South Carolina State.
C.J. Cummings stopped playing football after the eighth grade to concentrate on weightlifting full time. “He was a good running back and disappointed a lot of people when he gave it up,” Crystal said. “I understood it but the coaches didn’t. They didn’t get weightlifting because it wasn’t popular.
“I’m proud of C.J.. If anyone in our family understands the dynamic of weightlifting, it is me. I did it,” she said. “I am so proud of him.”
Under Jones’ tutelage, Cummings thrived in the sport. He lifted twice his body weight by the time he was 13. Crystal said she knew then that her brother was destined for greatness.
Cummings won two Youth World Championships (2016, 2017) and four straight Junior World Championships in 2016-19. He might have had five in a row, but COVID-19 postponed the 2020 event.
Cummings holds three three current International Weightlifting Federation marks and 23 American records.
“Lots of help and support to get me to this moment,” Cummings said. “There were some times I felt like I wanted to give up, but I have the right support around me to keep going forward and keep pushing.”
Jones is proud to see what Cummings has accomplished.
“It’s about just being the best you can be,” Jones told WSAV about Cummings. “The fact that he was this unbelievably gifted athlete, it’s like, he’s my kid. I want to ride it as far as I can and have him be as successful as he can be. But my goal for all the years that I’ve worked (with him) is to make a difference in the life of kids.”
Future of the U.S. weightlifting
Cummings’ rise in the sport has been well documented. The Wall Street Journal, Washington Post and ESPN all have done stories on his potential impact on the sport.
“In 37 years of coaching, I’ve never seen anything like this kid,” former U.S. weightlifting coach Dennis Snethen told The Washington Post. “He’s the Michael Jordan of weightlifting in America.”
Cummings has been dealing with attention for most of his career.
He signed a shoe deal with Reebok when he was 16, a rarity in weightlifting, and came up with the name for his own shoe — Legacy Lifters. He also has deals with Rogue Fitness, Ascent Protein, GOWOD (a mobility training app), and 2Pood (which makes his belt), according to MVA Sports’ Trey Robinson.
Cummings has been with MVA Sports, based in Charleston, since he was 15. He is the lone non-football client listed on the company’s website.
A big showing in the Olympics could lead to more endorsements and the possibility of being the face of USA Weightlifting in the future.
“I do embrace it,” Cummings said, and hopes the positive attention will continue — for him and the sport. “As long as I can keep my body healthy, I should be able to do this 10 more years or so. So I am excited about what the future holds.”
How, when to watch C.J. Cummings
Competition Time: July 28 7:50 p.m. (local time in Japan) / July 28 6:50 a.m. (Eastern)
Online NBCOlympics.com LIVE & On Demand
USA Network: July 28 4 p.m. Eastern (tape delay)
This story was originally published July 22, 2021 at 4:27 AM with the headline "SC’s CJ Cummings ready to compete in Tokyo, youngest US weightlifter in the Olympics."
