10-year-old Naomi Kutin Sets Women’s World Lifting Record

 Most Olympic sports, women's weightlifting has become an internationally competitive exercise. There are women from across the globe, from the UK and Turkey, China, North Korea and Kazakhstan, who hold Olympic and world records.

One new world record was even set by a Fairlawn, N.J., native. There's just one trick: She's only 10 years old.  A 10-year-old girl in New Jersey is now the world-record holder for the raw squat event. According to Off the Bench and a handful of other sources, young Naomi Kutin set a world record for the 97-pound division in the raw squat event by lifting an astounding 215 pounds at the RAW Unity weightlifting championships in Texas.

Kutin's incredible lift broke the existing 97-pound division mark of 209 pounds, which was held by -- wait for it -- a 44-year-old European. That's right: the 4-foot-8 Kutin just lifted six more pounds than a woman who does this all the time and has 34 years of seniority on her.

So, how did a fifth-grader possibly get wrapped into the competitive world of international powerlifting? Here's how Kutin explained her entrance to the sport to Corpus Christi TV station KIII in late January.

"When I was younger, my friends would be doing a lot of things that I couldn't do, and I wanted to do something extraordinary," an excited Kutin said. "I wanted to break a record of some sort and I just really wanted to get this record."

Fair enough, even if the difference between trying out a new sport and setting a new record before reaching middle school is pretty enormous.

While some might argue that Kutin could be opening up possible future health problems by lifting so much so soon, she does have one impressive piece of bragging rights on everyone else in her school, though they didn't believe her at first.

"It was only when I brought in my medal and certificate that they did. Everyone thought it was really cool," Kutin told the Daily Mail. "It's great being stronger than everyone I know. I'm always beating the boys in sports at school."

March 23, 2012