Rory van Ulft lifts a barbell weighing 80 kg at the age of 8. She is called the strongest girl in the world. Dad wants to make a weightlifter out of her, but does the girl herself want this?
Some children are naturally blessed with amazing opportunities. Someone is able to memorize a large amount of information, such as Ukrainian Vitaly Nechaev, who at the age of 9 knew by heart the Kobzar and the biographies of all hetmans. Some have incredible flexibility, while others have phenomenal strength. If parents see some kind of talent in their child, they try to develop it with the best intentions. Unfortunately, this often hides the exorbitant ambitions of adults, which do not bring happiness to the child himself, and can even ruin his life.
Today the whole world trumpets about the amazing power of Rory van Ulf from Canada. The girl is only 8 years old, but she has already become the US champion in weightlifting in the age category from 11 to 13 years. Moreover, the baby may well compete with older athletes. With a height of 120 cm and a weight of 30 kg, Rory understands truly crazy weights: deadlift with a weight of 80 kg is one of the standards for youth powerlifting categories.
Rory takes weight that not all adults can do / photo @roryvanulft
The girl started weightlifting when she was only 5 years old. The initiator was the father, Kavan van Ulf, who noticed the potential in the child and took his daughter to training. In three years he managed to make Rory a world star. “Now we can safely say that Rory is the strongest seven-year-old girl on the planet. Moreover, she is the strongest seven-year-old girl who has ever lived on earth, - the happy father proudly replies to reporters.
Rory needs a lot of training for good results / @roryvanulft
The family has already applied for Rory's entry into the Guinness Book of Records. But this is not the main goal of an ambitious dad. Kavan is aiming for his daughter to become the youngest Olympic weightlifting champion. True, for some reason she does not ask what Rory herself wants. Meanwhile, the little one likes to do more “female” sports. “To be honest, I prefer gymnastics. At least there is no need to lift any heavy things over your head, ”the girl admitted in one of her interviews.
In ordinary life, Rory does not look like a weightlifter at all / @roryvanulft
It is obvious that carrying weights does not bring much pleasure to the child. But she still has nothing to oppose to her dad. Meanwhile, it is not known how such stress will affect the girl's health, and whether she will become disabled at a young age. Kavan van Ulf says her daughter is regularly monitored by doctors. However, it is difficult to imagine a pediatrician who, in a sober mind and with memory, could allow an eight-year-old girl to lift three times more weight than her own.
Perhaps in the future, Rory will turn out very well, and in a few years we will really see her at the Olympics. But so far, her story is very similar to the fate of the Ukrainian woman Varvara Akulova. The girl was born in Kryvyi Rih in the family of a circus artist, and from the very birth her dad "sculpted" a phenomenon out of her. A two-week-old baby was tied to the handles with nuts in order to accustom the body to physical activity. At 8 years old, weighing 40 kg, Varya lifted a hundred-kilogram barbell. At the age of 14, she participated with her dad in circus performances, raising several adults at a time. At the age of 18, she broke up with a weightlifting career and went to work as a fitness instructor. “I don’t want to turn into a man, I’m a girl!” - this is how Varvara explained her decision to journalists.
Varya Akulova refused the status of the famous strongwoman / photo bigpicture.ru
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