Go ahead, pile on the kilos. Stephen Jesso can handle it. He’ll thrust it over his head, push it with his legs, hulk it from his chest — go ahead, pile it on.

And that whole being blind business? Forget about it. Jesso’s lack of sight has never skewed his vision of becoming the world’s best weightlifter.

“I guess to everyday, average people, I’m this blind guy who lifts weights, and it’s amazing to them that I can do what I can do,” says the 33-year-old Jesso.

“They just don’t realize that the only difference between them and me is the fact that they have two eyes that work and I don’t.”

In 2009, the Scarborough athlete became the International Blind Sports Association’s power-lifting champ. In November, Jesso won the Ontario Power Lifting Association’s bench-press championship in Ottawa, lifting a ridiculous 265 kilos (more than 500 pounds) above his chest.

He was the first blind athlete ever to win the event.

Jesso competes in the raw power-lifting event at the Toronto Pro SuperShow on Friday at 3 p.m. at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. The nearly 400-pound behemoth spoke with the Star about his career as a world-class weightlifter.

What drives you as an athlete?

“Well, truthfully, I don’t think of myself as a disabled lifter. When I go out on the platform I’m no different than anybody else. . . . The whole being blind thing doesn’t drive me (to think) that I have to be better than anyone else because I’m blind. I’m just a driven champion. I want to be the best at all times — not just as a blind lifter, but as an able-bodied lifter. I want to be the best at everything I do.”

What has been your proudest moment?

“I’m proud of a lot of things. As far as lifting accomplishments are concerned, I’m proud of winning the lifter of the meet award at the IBSA power-lifting championships in Miami in 1999. I was the first Canadian to win that award in, like, 14 years. I broke four world records. I shattered the squat record. I shattered the bench-press record. I shattered the dead-lift record, and I shattered the total record . . . it was like a 760-something, and I did an 885 (kilos). I just obliterated it.”

Are you the strongest man in Canada?

“I don’t think I’m the strongest guy, pound for pound, because there are some smaller guys out there that are pretty frigging strong that are not in my weight class. But for my weight class, raw, I’m probably the strongest guy. . . . I say that with a big smirk on my face. I know a lot of great lifters in this sport.”

What is left for you to accomplish?

“I want to win an able-body national championship. I want to go to the able-bodied (world championships) and win. Not just place. Win.