Alumnus Weightlifter Has Sights Set on 2020 Olympics

This week, the eyes of the world are on Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, as the 2016 Summer Olympics begin two weeks highlighting athletes who represent both their home countries and the top of their fields of athletic competition.

But it’s 2020 that one Rockhurst University alumnus has his sights set on. Ethan Harak, ’13, said that’s when he hopes to have a chance to compete for his country as an Olympic weightlifter.

It might seem like a lofty goal, but it’s one that Ethan, the son of Dale Harak, associate professor of chemistry at Rockhurst, could be well-equipped to realize after a strong start in the world of competitive weightlifting.

But that doesn’t mean it will be easy. Harak said competing for his country in 2020 would require devoting a majority of his time to a training regimen to prepare for the national and international competitions that determine the Team USA membership.

“I know I can do it,” he said. “I just have to put in the work.”

Harak said it’s not an opportunity he thought he would have when he was introduced to weightlifting in high school.

“I had a pretty good mentor,” he said. “He was actually my math teacher, too.”

It didn’t take long before Harak was hooked. After high school, he started CrossFit training, refining the snatch and clean and jerk lifting techniques that make up Olympic-level weightlifting events and realizing that he had a chance to compete at the highest levels of the sport.

The first two years of preparing for his professional career at an athlete, Harak was also balancing graduate coursework in chemistry at Indiana University, concentrating in materials chemistry and nanoparticles. Between coursework, research expectations, teaching classes and training, Harak said he had a full schedule.

“Either chemistry or lifting would normally require a majority of your time,” he said. “It was tough, but eventually I worked out a balance by throwing myself completely into one or the other at a time.”

That concentration helped in task management, but it’s also a big part of what makes a successful weightlifter, Harak said.

“You put in all that time in the gym and it comes down to a couple of seconds on that platform,” he said. “There’s definitely a mental component to it. You have to be mentally strong.”

Harak’s first competition was the U.S. Nationals in 2014, a few months after he started training in August 2013. He placed second in his weight class at that competition in 2014 and third at the same meet in 2015. He took second in the American Open both in 2014 and 2015. And he was invited to be part of the American team at the 2016 President’s Russian Cup in Kazan, Russia, where he placed fourth.

It’s an impressive start, but to qualify for the Olympic team in four years, Harak said he’ll need more international competition experience and improve on those finishes. With his Master of Science degree complete, Harak said he is back in Kansas City, taking on a more flexible schedule as a coach to give himself the time to devote to his own training.

Ethan’s also not the only weightlifter in the family — his younger brother, Evan, is a current Rockhurst student who competed in the 2015 USAW Junior National competition.

Follow Ethan’s journey on Twitter @EthanWHarak and at instagram.com/ethanwharak.