West Jordan youth sets world records with weights

James Goodfellow, a junior at West Jordan High School, is a typical 17-year-old kid. He likes to watch college football and looks forward to his own college career, though he isn’t sure what he will major in. He is considering data analysis, which figures. He likes watching football games due to the multiple outcomes that are possible because of the option offense.

He’s also set two world records in a sport far removed from the TV remote control—weightlifting.

Goodfellow is the youngest of nine children. His parents, Mark and Janna, have four other boys and four girls. He had bad knees when he was in junior high school. He was 6’3” and weighed 275 pounds at the age of 13. He grew too quickly and ended up knock-kneed.

After a year of treatment at Primary Children’s Hospital, doctors gave him the green light, saying that his knees were in perfect condition for athletics. So he went in search of his niche.

He tried swimming and archery, and played a bit of football at Juan Diego, but none of it captured his attention like what he discovered next.

Goodfellow’s father Mark sought out assistance from Manny Herrera, a world champion weight lifter, to improve his son’s strength for other sports. And, after five sessions, Herrera was convinced of Goodfellow’s determination and ability to go to the next level with weight training.

The two have been training together for nearly two years. In that time, Goodfellow has set two world records, one in the bench press and the other in the dead lift. The records were not only set by Goodfellow, but they simply shattered the previous records.

In November, 2010, he went to Las Vegas to the World Association of Benchers and Dead Lifters for the World Championships. There he set the 15-year-old record for bench press, 352.5 pounds, and dead lift, 434 pounds. He broke the previous bench press record by 83 pounds.

Goodfellow continues to work with Herrera four or five days per week, alternating workouts between upper body, lower body and cardio. He wants to throw discus and shot put for the track team at Copper Hills in the spring. He is also preparing for the 2012 WABDL World Championships next November, to attempt to break records in the 17-year-old division.

“He has the talent to meet the challenges he will face,” Herrera said of Goodfellow. “As a person, I have seen James come a long way to a world class competitor, yet he has the talent to take his lifting to a higher level.”

His parents are proud of his accomplishments as well. “James is a tremendous athlete. I am proud of him,” Mark Goodfellow said.

Goodfellow plans to continue developing, a singular talent not shared by many his age, if any. According to his trainer, Goodfellow has the ability to focus and get into a mindset under the weight bar, which is necessary for success in power lifting.

 “Power lifting has given him identity to who he is in this world,” Herrera said.