An Avondale native whom ABC15 interviewed just two weeks ago became the first-ever American to lift 1,000 pounds -- and all it cost him was a nosebleed.
Jerry Pritchett, one of the nation's top Strongman competitors, performed a 1,006-pound deadlift at last weekend's Arnold Classic in Ohio, becoming just the fourth man in the history of the planet to do so.
And he did it while he was under the weather.
"With the pressure of it, the nose started bleeding," Pritchett said, "plus it didn't help that I'd been fighting a cold for the last four weeks."
The 35-year-old Pritchett is an Agua Fria High School graduate and works as a metal fabricator for Salt River Project. He raced Sprint cars before switching to power lifting competitions in 2008.
Incredibly, Pritchett's lift wasn't the best of the weekend. That belonged to England's Eddie Hall, who lifted 1,025 pounds to break his own world record.
But Pritchett's achievement remains monumental. For the time being, he can legitimately say he's the strongest man in America.
"That was the plan, to break a thousand," he said. "I wanted to make sure I pulled what I needed to. It was at the back of my head that that’s what I wanted to do, and everything just went really well.
"It’s been a big goal for a really long time. This makes it even more special, to be the first American in history and the fourth in history to do that."
