Monash powerhouse Johnny Pham takes out Victorian Underage Weightlifting Championships

Monash student Johnny Pham did not know how much weight he was about to lift when he stepped onstage at the 2019 Victorian Underage Weightlifting Championships last week. 

The then 19-year-old won both the Under 20 and Under 23 State Champion titles in the 73kg categories on May 25. Johnny said he asked his coach to select the weight for him to lift.

Johnny Pham said most of his training involves 

"patterning and technique work" to refine the

movements of his two lifts. Photo: Johnny Pham.

“I thought I would overthink it and stress out and get scared. So I just said ‘put the numbers up’ and I’ll just pretend it’s nothing and I’ll lift it,” he said.

“I don’t think I realised [how heavy it was] until I started walking off the stage.”

Johnny lifted 85 kilograms in the Snatch competition, and 108 kilograms in the Clean and Jerk to take out the competition.

He said he had “never got anywhere close” to this weight in training, generally lifting no more than 83 kilograms or 100 kilograms in each event respectively.

“In my last competition, I was absolutely stoked and astounded. I was punching the air and screaming at it. But this one I was just really in my zone and focused, I wanted that gold and that’s all I ever wanted for this.”

Perhaps most remarkable is that this was just his third competition ever. Despite starting weight training when he was 13 years old, Johnny did not begin competing until March this year.

“I had always just been gyming [sic] for me, just for fun and moving weights around. I never thought about competing, because I didn’t think I would do too well, thinking it was high stakes, with lots of experienced people,” he said.

The event was held at the Eleiko Victorian Weightlifting 

Stadium in Hawthorne. Johnny said the environment at  

competitions is highly motivating. Photo: Johnny Pham.

“But I surprised myself, truly, because I came in and have done pretty well for myself.”

Compared to other strength sports, weightlifting is a greater test of explosive strength than limit strength, so lifts require mobility and fast execution.

Johnny spends about two and a half hours in the gym five days a week. He does occasional bodybuilding work for injury prevention, but most of his training is focused on refining his weightlifting technique.  

“I came from a powerlifting background, so my foundation was there in terms of strength. But what was most surprising to me was how technical [Weightlifting] is. A lot of it is about speed and timing, you can’t miss a beat and lift it half a second too late, you can’t grind it out. You either hit it or you don’t,” he said.

“You can be really surprised by the lifters, there are a lot of skinny looking people there who don’t look like they could lift what they do.”

Written by Nell O'Shea Carre, Media Coordinator.