Bench Press, Small Arms, and Three Gold Medals

If you aren't familiar with the bench-press, I'm fin'a tell you what it is...in a non-athletic, mommy way. 

It's where you lay on your back, on the bench, with your feet on the floor...and you lift (or press) the weight bar (barbell) straight up. 

In competition, a coach will lift the barbell off the "rack" and place it on your chest. Then you will be given the command to "lift." Once you've lifted completely, the coach will say, "rack," and the spotters will help put the barbell back on the rack. 

There are two levels for the rack. 

Joshua had successfully completed two lifts using the higher rack, but it was obvious that he was really having to stretch to reach it because of his small-ish stature. :) 

Before Joshua's 3rd lift, the coach started talking quietly to Joshua...and then the coach moved the barbell to the lower rack, which I had wanted him to do from the start. 

While all of this was going on, everyone was waiting patiently. The athletes were saying things like, "Go, Joshua!" And, "You've got this!" And, "easy lift, man." 

I had gotten up from my seat, and moved to the front, so that I could take pictures. There was a small group of parents standing up there, and I just slipped beside them for a minute. Some of them were talking with each other about Joshua. They were saying things like, "look at him...he's so SMALL!" And, "his arms and legs are so SHORT, bless his heart." 

And I was thinking, "this is Special Olympics, where the motto is, 'Let me win, but if I cannot win...let me be brave in the attempt.'" 

And I was also thinking, "he is one of the bravest men I know." 

And also, "did you not see his first two lifts?" 

But I stood there quietly as he successfully bench-pressed 145 lbs. And 30 minutes later, I watched him dead-lift 190 lbs. 

That's a combined lift of 335 lbs, from an athlete that weighed in this morning at a whopping 115.4 lbs. (even after eating breakfast at Chick-fil-a!) 

I wanted to say, "so, bless Y'ALL'S hearts." But I didn't.

But, really...not too shabby for those short arms and legs, huh?

Joshua won 3 gold medals today. "To God be the glory, great things HE has done." 

"The LORD has done great things for us and we are filled with joy." Psalm 126:3