Champion power lifter works to bolster strength of frontline workers

Instead of bench pressing the weight of your average fully grown black bear, Sumeet Sharma has been lifting the spirits of frontline workers.

Sharma, a competitive powerlifter with several gold and silver medal finishes earned over his career already, was set to compete in the European Junior Powerlifting Championships last May until the coronavirus (COVID-19) dashed those plans. As the pandemic spread and put increasing pressure on frontline workers, Sharma would switch out lifting disks of iron for crates of water bottles and boxes full of food to donate to nurses across the Lower Mainland.

“I have a lot of family members and friends who work in hospitals, just hearing their stories about how healthcare workers working extremely hard during this pandemic really inspired me, my family, and my sponsors to give back to the healthcare workers,” Sharma wrote in an email to Vancouver Is Awesome.

Sumeet Sharma, his friends, family and coworkers have been busy making donations to frontline workers across the Lower Mainland since April. By Sumeet Sharma

Since April Sharma, along with his sponsors, friends and family have delivered Indian food, pizza, coffee, nutrition bars, and water bottles to hospitals. The initiative switched from hospitals to schools in early September but not before donating to Vancouver General, Royal Columbian, Abbotsford Regional, Langley Memorial, St. Paul's and Mount Saint Joseph.

“The reason why we are delivering to teachers is because they have been working extremely hard during the pandemic dealing with cases and new protocols each month,” Sharma said. “As a team we wanted thank them for their hard work and let them know that we really appreciate what they are doing for the kids.”

Sharma has been competing in powerlifting since 2016 and in that time he has accumulated an impressive resume. He won gold in 2017 and 2018 at the Western Powerlifting Championships and placed fourth in powerlifting in the country in 2018. 

Sharma also won gold for Team Canada in powerlifting at the North American Powerlifting Championships in Panama City last October and more recently competed in Winnipeg at Nationals where he earned another gold medal. Since winning the national title he has been selected to be part of team Canada to compete at the World powerlifting championship in Russia in October. 

Sumeet Sharma, his friends, family and coworkers have been busy making donations to frontline workers across the Lower Mainland since April. By Sumeet Sharma

Despite Sharma’s obvious prowess in the sport, powerlifting is still a hobby. In his day job he works with the B.C. Corrections’ emergency response team. Members of this team also help Sharma in his flurry of donations.

Needless to say Sharma is a busy man. When he’s not pumping iron, donating to hospitals or schools, since the beginning of the year he has been training Lower Mainland youth in the sport of powerlifting for free and speaks at schools giving presentations on the sport and dieting.

In his initial email to Vancouver Is Awesome Sharma wrote he wants others to follow in donating to B.C.’s tireless frontline workers.

“I'm hoping my story encourages people in the community to donate to front line workers and teachers,” Sharma wrote.

A full list of charities that support frontline workers across the province can be found on canadahelps.org.