Jeffrey Lee, who you may know from kicking you out of the training room for eating or handing you a sports uniform that’s 3 sizes too big, is apparently really strong. Over the summer, Fieldston’s favorite Assistant Head Trainer won the 2023 Strongest Man Competition. The Strongest Man competition is essentially a fight to prove physical strength, and as often as we see Jeff trying his best to prevent injuries in the fitness room, he puts on quite an amazing show outside of campus. It’s hard to work with student-athletes, but it’s even harder to lift giant weights!
Lee has always been an athlete: he was a track and field athlete in high school and in college, and he participated on frisbee and rugby teams. Putting health as the top priority, Lee stepped down from his teams due to a series of concussions. This didn’t keep him away from his love for fitness, because he gained a new passion for weight lifting. He was first exposed to it when he was just a kid. He watched ESPN’s World’s Strongest Man and often looked up to the people he witnessed carrying hundreds of pounds on their backs. Intimidating as it gets, Lee took this childhood memory and applied his dream to reality. Back in 2014, Lee heard about strongman competitions trained for them, qualified for them and ended up winning his first match that same year. Looking back on his experience Lee says, “I never thought I would ever be able to compete in that sport and do the things those giant human beings who seemed like they were from a fantasy story would do.” Fantasy or not, it clearly didn’t keep him from pursuing his dream.
The training process is a big commitment, but Lee “stayed present the entire time.” He claimed, “There is a lot that goes into training for a competition of this level and caliber, but basically, I would start training for the competition 10 weeks before the competition doing 3-4 times a week.” He also made the commute to Raleigh, North Carolina to meet a friend who had t been the previous winner of America’s Strongest Man 105kg., who provided Lee with some valuable coaching. Lee finally reached the big competition. He was suddenly faced with both physical and mental challenges: “Winning the title was what kept me going. I knew I had a lot of strong competitors so I knew I had to push myself in the gym to bring the best performance I could for the competition.”
With no surprise, the title of America’s Strongest Man 105kg was claimed by one of our favorite faculty members. Over these past few months, Lee has assisted student-athletes and faculty members in achieving their best.
There’s a humorous side to his new celebrity. According to Carolyn Smith, Head Athletic Trainer at Fieldston, “Working with the Strongest Man in America feels great because it means I get to move a lot less equipment than I used to.”
As Lee’s journey as a weightlifter continues, the Fieldston student body wishes him success with many more accomplishments to come.
