It’s a cold January morning. It’s early enough for Ethan Harak to bring two cups of Starbucks coffee with him into Stonebreaker Athletics.
The gym is in the heart of Bloomington, but out of the eyesight of most. In this garage-like building, people of all skill levels train with the radio blaring and the constant refrain of weights hitting the floor.
Amongst this humble setup, Harak barely breaks a sweat, quietly warming up with a light PVC pipe. You would never guess that he’s about to lift hundreds of pounds effortlessly, or that he’s training to qualify for the 2016 Summer Olympics.
But the medals on the walls might be a giveaway.
“Hey,” Alice Kay Hui, who also works out at Stonebreaker, says jokingly. “Those aren’t all yours.”
The jokes with fellow trainees and the music keep him going, especially during the grueling workouts, Harak said.
He steps up to the bar and dances ever so slightly to Drake’s “Hotline Bling.” In one smooth motion, Harak lifts 515 pounds, lets out an audible grunt in between lifts and puts the bar in resting position.
This is what Harak said he does five days a week, all in preparation to qualify for the Summer Olympics.
“Weightlifting is mentally draining,” Harak said. “Most days it sucks, and you walk into the gym and you are sore and it’s a grind.”
But, winning a gold medal and making Team USA are what keeps him continuing this grind, he said.
“Going to Rio and the Olympics this summer would be a dream,” Harak said. “It would be me representing not just me, but my country, my family and my gym.”
Stonebreaker Athletics acts like a family for Harak, he said.
“We just try to set him up for success,” said Jennifer Agnew,one of Harak’s trainers at Stonebreaker. “He’s way more advanced than anyone at our gym. He’s an elite athlete.”
Getting to Rio won’t be easy for Harak, even with his success at previous tournaments. Harak has finished second and third at the U.S. Nationals in 2014 and 2015 respectively, and finished second twice at the American Open in both 2014 and 2015.
Harak said because of Team USA’s poor showing at the 2015 World meet, most likely only one American weightlifter will be donning the red, white and blue in Rio. That means to go to Rio, he must beat every single weightlifter at the U.S. Olympic Trials.
For now, Harak dons his Kansas City Royals socks, representing his hometown team as he trains for his first international meet in Russia this March.
Harak grew up just miles from Kansas City in Lee Summit, Missouri, where his path to Rio began.
“I played football for two years in high school, but my heart wasn’t in it,” Harak said. “When I was a sophomore I took up power lifting and would spend five days a week in the weight room.”
After high school, he said he had no idea that there were such things as strength sports and didn’t know where it would take him. He said he started doing CrossFit training in college.
In 2013, the potential Olympian found the sport that would potentially make him famous.
“I started weightlifting right before I started graduate school here at IU in August of 2013,” Harak said. “Through CrossFit, I found fell into love with weightlifting, but then it turned it why should I do CrossFit, when I can just do weightlifting.”
Finding he was good at lifting heavy weights, he said he it made sense to continue on since he enjoyed it.
“Weightlifting is a perfect balance between strength and athleticism,” Harak said on the reason he was drawn to the sport.
The other balance he said he had to achieve was between studying chemistry for graduate school and training, which he said was exhausting.
“I made it work because I made both things a priority and focused on one thing at time,” he said.
Harak graduated this past December and said he doesn’t know what to do with all this time he now has to train.
“You spend a lot of time in the gym and sometimes you kind of go crazy,” he said. “I like to fun with it.”
Marina Carsello, a sophomore at IU, also lifts weights alongside Harak at Stonebreaker. She noted that Harak is quiet, but when he does talk, he’s goofy.
“We all make fun of him,” she said on the joking within the Stonebreaker gym family. “We keep him humble.”
Humility is something Harak said he has and has made him better as he said the success hasn’t gone to his head.
“No one expected me to be this good, this soon,” he said. “I’m still a newbie. The 2020 Olympics will definitely be my year, but I’m still making a run at Rio.”
