{"id":225879,"date":"2020-06-20T15:36:34","date_gmt":"2020-06-20T20:36:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=225879"},"modified":"2020-06-19T23:05:11","modified_gmt":"2020-06-20T04:05:11","slug":"espn-high-schooler-down-syndrome-bench-press","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/espn-high-schooler-down-syndrome-bench-press\/","title":{"rendered":"ESPN recognizes high schooler with Down syndrome who set bench press record"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;\" class=\"sharethis-inline-share-buttons\" ><\/div><p>Garret Alcaraz, who just graduated from Tehachapi High School in California, only meant to make his high school leaderboard. Instead, he crushed the school record for a one-rep max in the bench press &#8212; and he also has Down syndrome. With that record, Alcaraz got himself heaps of nationwide attention, as well as a nod from ESPN.<\/p>\n<p>Garage Gym Barbell\u2014where Alcaraz works out\u2014shared the video, explaining that Alcaraz was only trying to get on his school&#8217;s leaderboard before leaving. &#8220;He sure crushed it yesterday!&#8221; the post said. &#8220;Benching 355 lb like a beast. Congratulations young man. You have given so many motivation and def make us want to reach for those PRs!&#8221; Alcaraz is only 45 pounds away from breaking the Special Olympics bench press record as well.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"border: none; overflow: hidden;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/plugins\/video.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FTheGarageGymBarbell%2Fvideos%2F227791865181669%2F&amp;show_text=1&amp;width=476\" width=\"476\" height=\"688\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The clip quickly went viral and spread on social media from outlets like <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SportsCenter\/status\/1258850208756174849\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">SportsCenter<\/a>, and it&#8217;s been viewed millions of times. The video was even shared by Arnold Schwarzenegger on Instagram, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/B_8rY9bpBWb\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">who wrote<\/a>, &#8220;Garret, you inspire me! You set a goal and you achieved it. When this is all over, we have to train together.&#8221; The video was also nominated to win ESPN&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/espys\/story\/_\/id\/29208810\/2020-espys-vote-your-favorite-stop-watching-moment\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">ESPY award<\/a> for the &#8220;Can&#8217;t-Stop-Watching&#8221; moment.<\/p>\n<p><strong>READ:\u00a0<em><a href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/special-olympian-down-syndrome-ironman\/\">Special Olympian strives to be first person with Down syndrome to complete Ironman<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>On Reddit, commenters were blown away by Alcaraz&#8217; strength and ability. &#8220;[L]ook at his legs, he\u2019s not driving with his legs at all,&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/nextfuckinglevel\/comments\/ggpbf1\/garret_who_has_down_syndrome_bench_pressed_a\/fq3nr1c\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">one commenter wrote<\/a>. &#8216;This guy just pushed 355 with a narrow grip and zero lower body input, that\u2019s insane. He\u2019s pushing all of that weight purely with his upper body. Dudes [sic] strong as hell, I can\u2019t imagine the weight he\u2019d be pushing if someone taught him how to bench with proper form.&#8221; Another person <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/nextfuckinglevel\/comments\/ggpbf1\/garret_who_has_down_syndrome_bench_pressed_a\/fq435un\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">added<\/a>, &#8220;I don\u2019t think people understand how big of a difference this makes. He\u2019s basically pushing that weight with his triceps. Absolutely unreal.&#8221;<\/p>\n<div class=\"scripps_iframe_embed\" style=\"position: relative;\">\n<div style=\"display: block; width: 100%; height: auto; padding-bottom: 56.25%;\"><\/div>\n<p><iframe style=\"position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%;\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.scrippsdigital.com\/cms\/videoIframe.html?&amp;host=www.turnto23.com&amp;title=Garret%20Alcaraz%20is%20breaking%20records%20and%20barriers&amp;m3u8=https:\/\/content.uplynk.com\/3a1218ed2fb94e0b9b3422d83a32ff6c.m3u8&amp;purl=\/sports\/tehachapi-senior-garret-alcaraz-is-lifting-weights-and-spirits&amp;story=0&amp;ex=1&amp;s=kero\" height=\"100%\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Alcaraz, who comes from a family of 10, has a lot of support from his brothers, even if they&#8217;re occasionally jealous. &#8220;I&#8217;m always jealous of Garret. He always gets all the girls but I&#8217;ve gotten used to it, but [then] I saw Arnold Schwarzenegger shout him out and show how incredible Garret is and the impact he has on people,&#8221; Kiel Alcaraz <a href=\"https:\/\/www.turnto23.com\/sports\/tehachapi-senior-garret-alcaraz-is-lifting-weights-and-spirits\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">told 23ABC News<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Another brother, Trevor, joked that they&#8217;re always fighting to see who is going to work out with him. &#8220;To do what he did. I mean, it&#8217;s just it&#8217;s magical, you know, I mean it&#8217;s just\u2014I mean, for him to have a disability and to be able to do that is just, you know, amazing,&#8221; Trevor Alcaraz said.<\/p>\n<p>For Garret himself, the biggest accomplishment, however, is lifting not weights, but people&#8217;s spirits, according to his dad, Manny Alcaraz. He said, &#8220;[H]e&#8217;s happy that it lifted all these spirits, and gave all these people, motivation to work out, or just get gave them what they need in this time of day.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/liveactionnewsonline\/\">\u201cLike\u201d Live Action News on Facebook<\/a>\u00a0for more pro-life news and commentary!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Garret Alcaraz, who just graduated from Tehachapi High School in California, only meant to make his high school leaderboard. Instead, he crushed the school record for a one-rep max in the bench press &#8212; and he also has Down syndrome. With that record, Alcaraz got himself heaps of nationwide attention, as well as a nod [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":225880,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[9455,3473],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>ESPN recognizes high schooler with Down syndrome who set bench press record<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Garret Alcaraz, who just graduated high school and has Down syndrome, ended up crushing his school record for a one-rep max in the bench press.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/espn-high-schooler-down-syndrome-bench-press\/\" \/>\n<meta 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