Olympic Weightlifting

In addition to my academic pursuits, I am also a competitive Olympic Weightlifter and USA Weightlifting (USAW) Level II coach, serving as the coach and president of the UCLA Weightlifting club since 2022. I compete in the 110kg+ weight class, and earned a bronze and silver medals in the USAW North American Series II in 2022-2023, a silver medal at the United Masters Weightlifting Federation (UMWF) World Championships in 2025, and 5th place in the 2026 National Championships. As of June 2026, my best lifts are 150kg in the snatch, and 181kg in the clean and jerk. I thank Jasha Faye, Max Aita, Daniel Camargo, Oleksiy Torokhtiy, Jabo Nguyen, Joe Beck, and many others who have coached me in person, competition, seminars, during USAW Certification, and also online. I also owe a deep gratitude to my wife, who has supported me through the time consuming process of training and traveling to compete.

Coaching @ UCLA

Every academic quarter since Fall 2022, including Summer sessions, I have taught the course “Intro to Olympic Weightlifting” at UCLA. It has been a great honor to coach, teach, and support over 200 athletes, students, and university affiliates through this course. In addition to coaching Olympic Weighlifting, I have also coached the Bruin Health Improvement Program (BHIP) and Bruin Strong (BStrong) courses, as well as given seminars to various groups on campus, including the athletic trainers, and specific sport athletes. In the Summer of 2025, I co-taught the Sports Conditioning course at UCLA for Jr. High students enrolled in the Summer Discovery program.

Due to the highly technical nature of Olympic Weightlifting, I have the privilege of coaching many high level athletes from other sports looking to optimize their movement, force production, strength, and triple extension. Since I established UCLA Olympic Weightlifting in 2022, UCLA has sent over 100 athletes to national level competitions, and participation and interest in Olympic Weightlifting has surged on campus. Find us on Instagram @ucla_weightlifting and @clean_and_jake, register for the course at UCLA Recreation: Intro to Olympic Weightlifting, and submit any inquiries you have to us here.

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