Stephen Jesso likes the raw power of lifting.

It gives something like a runner's high when he's standing on the platform, an "incredible rush it's hard to describe" and a sense of accomplishment.

"I do it for me, because I love it," says the Scarborough man who, in a single year of competition, has crushed world powerlifting records for the blind and put himself in reach of his next challenge, powerlifters who can see.

"No one in Ontario can outlift me - that's able-bodied or otherwise," Jesso, 31, said last week at Variety Village, where his daily training and mentoring of younger powerlifters has given him celebrity status.

"I haven't begun to scratch the surface of how strong I am."

On his knee, Jesso balanced his Lifter of the Meet trophy from the International Blind Sports Association's (IBSA) Powerlifting Championships in Miami, the first Canadian to win one in 12 years.

In the super heavyweight category - with 381 pounds on his five-foot-11-inch frame, he's been the heaviest lifter wherever he goes - Jesso stood against competitors this month from Iran, Russia, Venezuela and other nations where powerlifting is "just as big as hockey is in Canada."

He broke IBSA records in all three categories, the squat, bench press and deadlift, and feels he could have lifted more weight in each.

In the deadlift, Jesso's favourite for its sheer pick-it-up-off-the-floor-or-don't impressiveness, the record was 281 kilos (617 pounds); Jesso hauled up 300 kilos (661 pounds) in a single movement.

Yet Jesso's post-university decision to be a powerlifter first led to nearly a decade of off and on training.

At the beginning, Jesso, previously a competitive wrestler and bodybuilder, was just working out, said his coach Frank Quinn. "He was showing me what he couldn't do at the time, and I was showing him what he could do."

Finally, Quinn said, "I told him he had to commit himself for a full year" before his first competition.

Jesso said he needed to sure he was ready.

"I wanted to compete with no questions, no doubts."

They had one goal from the beginning: get to the IBSA world's and win. Now, Jesso is set on being the first blind athlete to medal at the able-bodied world's, and then one day to win it outright.

Powerlifting takes patience and confidence in your abilities to move with the bar, he said. It took Jesso years to get his squat right and feel really comfortable in a sport where many things can go wrong.

Today, he added, he'd be miserable without powerlifting. It can be tedious, hard on the body and the mind sometimes, but the Variety Village gym is the place where Jesso said he needs to be, the place he's most comfortable in.

Jesso studied health sciences, tried massage therapy as a profession for a while. Though he's a registered holistic nutritionist, he's hoping for community sponsors so he can turn powerlifting into a full-time job.

"I'm still very young in this sport. I can only get better from here."

Good at every sport he tried, Jesso, who enjoys playing Neil Young and Pink Floyd songs on guitar, lost his sight when he was hit in the head by a basketball.

He grew up around Birchmount Road and Danforth Avenue and said he can still remember what most of the area looks like.

Jesso's wife Olivia, his high school sweetheart and a chef, has persevered along with him, accommodating his training needs within the couple's limited food budget. For breakfast, Jesso said he might have six eggs, a pound of bacon and a dozen sausages.

But on competition days, he keeps it simple. "What are you going to feed a horse on race day? Oats."

For two years, his friend Justin Burns has worked with Jesso day in and day out. A football player who has his own hopes to be a competitive powerlifter, he noticed "the big guy" in the gym, then accepted when Jesso simply told him, "I'm going to make you my training partner."

Burns added Jesso's technique is flawless.

"I think he can do anything," he said.

http://www.insidetoronto.com/article/35588--blind-powerlifter-crushes-world-records