Weightlifting wonder brings home silver

Connor Bazilsky was 12 when he first stepped foot inside Victory Barbell Club to try the sport of weightlifting. Back then, he was a scrawny kid from Trenton who was not enjoying playing hockey or soccer. A little over two years later, he is still a scrawny kid from Trenton, but now holds six provincial records at the Ontario Junior Weightlifting Championships, and also earned a silver medal from the 2017Canadian Junior Weightlifting Championships.  
Bazilsky, now 14, weighs 48.8 kilograms but lifts in a heavier weight class—the 56-kilogram lift. During the Canadian national competition held in Brossard, Que., he was the youngest and the lightest competitor.   
“It felt awesome to beat people older than me. I thought that was cool,” he said of his recent win. In the national competition, his heaviest lift for the snatch was 57 kilos, and his heaviest lift for clean and jerk was 81 kilos, anew Ontario Juvenile record. 
Bazilsky first found out about weightlifting when he and a friend were given flyers to a weightlifting class to be held in their school. When he told his mom, Pamela, about his interest in the sport, she was unsure. 
“I was thrilled that he wanted to try a new sport but I wasn’t comfortable with him joining a sport that I didn’t know who the coach was”, says Pamela Bazilsky. 
“That’s when I asked Gary, who I work with, to take him in and train him for weightlifting. I knew Gary was a weightlifter and operates his own club. Once he agreed, I drove Connor to the club three times a week and the rest was history.” Bazilsky now trains with his coach Gary Lewis, who is an accomplished weightlifter and operates his own club. 
“Connor is a coach’s dream. He does everything and works hard,” Lewis says. 
During the Ontario provincial competition, Bazilsky and his coach were surprised but very happy about his results. 
“Everyone in the competition were telling us that it was impossible to beat the records but Connor did and it was great,” Lewis says.
 “In weightlifting, you’re up against yourself. You just have to beat yourself,” Bazilsky adds. 
According to his coach and his mom, Bazilsky lives and breathes weightlifting. 
“In his spare time, he’s watching weightlifting videos. I don’t know how, but he really loved the sport from the beginning,” his mom says. 
Currently, Bazilsky is a freshman at Bayside Secondary School and is preparing for upcoming tournaments this spring. 

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