Photo: U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Haiden Morris via Wikimedia Commons, public domain.
The all-vegan Vegan Strong PlantBuilt team has won 55 medals, 48 of them gold, at the Mr. America 2024 Sports Festival in New Jersey (October 11 to October 13), Plant Based News reports. It beats last year's record haul of 41 medals.
The standout lift came from powerlifter Jerry Stanley, who deadlifted 299.4kg (660lb) in the 100kg open drug-tested class at the APA Mr. America Open Powerlifting Classic, according to the meet results. Great Vegan Athletes reports the lift, rounded to 300kg, as a world record for his class, although the meet results do not mark it as a record. Stanley totaled 694kg.
Nick Squires led the medal count with eight, on a 771kg (1,700lb) total, and Katya Gorbacheva was the best female lifter with 455.9kg (1,005lb). 'Vegan Meathead' Daniel Austin totaled 570kg at 82.5kg, and Sarah Kashdan set a national deadlift record on her way to three golds.
The strongman squad took seven medals, with Ric Carroll, Andrew Keys, Melissa Busta and Angeline Berva among the winners and Tom Butts taking bronze. The kettlebell team won 16 golds, with Sara Lee shifting 15,896kg in 55 minutes. In bodybuilding, Evelyn Santos won the Open bikini class.
Every athlete on the team eats a fully plant-based diet. Team founder and bodybuilder Giacomo Marchese says the results speak for themselves:
As more people see the success the Vegan Strong PlantBuilt team has at Mr. America and other competitions, they will realize that plant protein can take you to the elite levels of their sports. You can be a champion athlete and still be compassionate.
The team's haul has grown every year. In 2022 Team PlantBuilt won 18 medals at Mr. America, and last year they won 41 medals, 32 of them gold. Back in 2017 vegan athletes set world records and won a huge medal haul, and in August Sasho Andreev won double arm-wrestling world gold.
The 'weak vegan' stereotype is dead and buried.