Lake Gibson junior weightlifter Landyn Conrad was panicking right before he hit a historic feat at the 2026 USA Weightlifting National Championships in Colorado Springs on Monday.
Right before it happened, he was with the last four competitors scheduled to lift and was a bit worried because his two attempts beforehand had moved slower than usual. Still, he had a goal and knew he needed to hit this lift of 100KG/220 pounds in snatch and 116KG/255 pounds in clean and jerk to make the nearly 2,000-mile trip from Lakeland even worth it, so he was locked in thinking about only the lift and holding it overhead.
Mentally preparing before the attempt, he walked up on stage, kept his eyes locked on the bar, took some deep breaths and did the motions before stepping up onto the platform and up to the bar. From there, he grabbed the bar, set his hips and found his spot on the wall, taking a deep breath and just pulled with all his might. As he lifted, all he could think about was to execute this third attempt, making it look exactly like the one before.
And he did it ― unknowingly, however. While he didn’t hit his personal goal because he racked up a 91KG snatch, that’s still a Pacific Northwest record for the under 17 category.
“Breaking this record was shocking to me because I didn’t even know it existed,” Conrad said. “It was surreal to know I had done something so insane without even knowing. Doing so while representing Lake Gibson weightlifting made it even better because I know it makes my team proud.”
Conrad and Lake Gibson head weightlifting coach Daniel Hargrove didn’t know it existed. Conrad said he found out through his aunt, who sent him a screen recording of it being announced on the livestream, so he didn’t find out until hours later.
Hargrove also had three other lifters place and was proud of everyone who made the trip and accomplished a lift in the Midwest.
“…There are moments when I get to experience things such as this, and I see my kids’ success and their enjoyment from the success and knowing it is a pure enjoyment and fulfillment of their hard work,” Hargrove said. “It reinvigorates me on a daily basis to try to be the coach that they want me to be…”
Conrad eventually got to the point when Hargrove was reinvigorated from the eventual lifter’s might, but first he needed to start. His first time lifting weights was in October 2023, which was his eighth-grade year. He discovered it like most folks, lifting machines at a Planet Fitness, which lasted about three months before he needed to quit because of the inability to pay the membership fee.
He would go on to join Lake Gibson’s football team during his freshman year just to have access to a weight room. But he wasn’t completely fond of the coaching staff, so he quit.
Still, football is where he met Hargrove – a football assistant coach – who told the Lakeland native about the weightlifting team, so he took the next five months off and then joined the lifting squad at 15 in January of 2025.
“Coach Hargrove has pushed me and motivated me to become more confident in myself when other people chose to believe I wasn’t worth it. Other sports pushed me away but Hargrove at the time not knowing my potential pushed me to do (it) and be better,” Conrad said. “This sport has become the center of my life and it’s what I look forward to every single day. It’s made me a better person and changed my daily ability. A year ago, I wouldn’t be doing half the stuff I do today. The next thing for me is to get better. My goal is to come back to nationals next year and break an even bigger record. For now, though, my focus is to become the best I can be.”
This article originally appeared on The Ledger: How Lake Gibson’s Conrad broke Pacific Northwest lift record
Reporting by Robert Magobet, Lakeland Ledger / The Ledger
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Robert Magobet, Lakeland Ledger | USA TODAY Network
