Murrysville teen pushes through chronic illness, pain to set state powerlifting records
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It was tough enough for Murrysville teen powerlifter James Swift to overcome the setbacks imposed by the covid-19 pandemic, which left him unable to get to the gym and maintain a consistent training schedule.
It got even tougher when his long-standing stomach issues were finally diagnosed as ulcerative colitis, a chronic inflammation of his gastrointestinal tract.
Last week, that diagnosis led to the removal of his entire large intestine. But before that could happen, Swift decided to push through the pain and get one more powerlifting competition under his belt in mid-October.
“I wanted to say that, despite the disease, I went and I competed and gave it my best,” said Swift, 17, a junior at Franklin Regional Senior High School.
It worked out.
Swift set state records in his age and weight group for the squat (435 pounds), bench press and bench press single lift (292 pounds), and total weight lifted between squat, bench press and dead lift (1,186 pounds).
Behind the success, however, is no small measure of uncertainty.
Swift first began to notice stomach problems in the spring of 2019, “but I didn’t think much of it at first,” he said. “I’d gone to a doctor who thought I had irritable bowel syndrome, and they kept changing my diet, but everything seemed to produce the same result.”
Swift was training to compete at the national level in powerlifting, but like so many other public events in 2020, it ended up canceled.
In January 2021, Swift started training again for national competition, but his stomach pain was worsening.
“In between sets, I’d be laying on the floor in pain,” he said. “It was a struggle to get my work done, and I was going to the bathroom 20 times a day.”
Swift was having difficulty sleeping, suffered from anemia and was placed on multiple medications until doctors found a regimen that helped somewhat.
“I hadn’t officially been diagnosed with ulcerative colitis yet, so we didn’t know that it was something that could go into remission,” he said. “I tried for eight weeks to get back to the gym, and I was getting stronger but I was also getting more injuries.”
The inconsistency was hard to handle, Swift said, not just because he never knew when he might be debilitated by stomach pain, but also because powerlifting requires a dedicated, consistent training schedule.
By April, he received a diagnosis.
By August, he felt he’d regained much of his former strength, but ultimately ended up back in the hospital, and decided to meet with a surgeon to explore the possibility of a total colectomy, the full removal of the large intestine where the chronic inflammation was occurring.
When he found out the surgery wouldn’t take place until after a mid-October powerlifting competition he’d entered, Swift made the decision to compete.
“I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to keep lifting after the surgery, so I wanted to say that at least I went and tried,” he said. “It was just a matter of getting through the pain. It wasn’t physically dangerous for me to be lifting.”
Working with his training coach, Swift put together a plan to somehow make up for what would normally be months of meticulous workouts.
“We had no idea where I was at, power-wise,” Swift said. “Then the day before the competition, I was in pain for 14 straight hours.”
The next morning, Swift said he took his stomach medications, and pushed through the pain to set multiple records.
Once the surgery is complete, Swift will have a colostomy bag, and has researched other powerlifters in similar situations.
“There are people who compete with the bag,” he said. “And there’s always a chance that I won’t be able to keep lifting. But as much as I love it, being able to get rid of all the pain and symptoms is what I really want.”
And considering how well Swift has done while coping with ulcerative colitis, “I’m really excited to see what’s possible if I’m able to get into a competition after doing all of the training the right way,” he said.
His mother Melissa is just as excited.
“Many people would’ve given up with a health issue like this,” she said. “James stood firm in faith, faced it head-on, and didn’t let it stop him from achieving his goals. Not only is he a state champion, he’s an inspiration to all of us.”