Siua Tongi Jr. is an 11-year-old sixth grader from West Valley City who can deadlift 335 pounds, squat 315 and bench press 225 — and on Saturday, he was scheduled to try to surpass the USA Powerlifting record total in competition. The current USAPL youth record total sits at 683 pounds, held by a 12-year-old lifter in the United Kingdom.
The attempt was set for the USA Powerlifting Utah Summer Open, held Saturday at Salt Lake Stronghold in Murray, according to USA Powerlifting/LiftingCast event registration details. As KSL.com reports, Siua has earned a nickname around his community: “They call me the world's strongest 11-year-old,” he said.
Siua trains alongside his 13-year-old brother, Sateki, who competes in his own powerlifting division and has trained with Siua for much of the summer. “I love having my brother with me,” Siua said, per the same account. Sateki, for his part, said it would be amazing if his older brother became the strongest in the world — though Siua downplayed the pressure, saying, “I'll just be happy if he breaks the record.”
A Family Affair Rooted in West Valley City
The brothers train at Polynesian Strength, where their uncle, Noa Tongi, first introduced them to the sport. Noa has since begun bringing younger family members into organized youth powerlifting competitions, and the boys are also coached by a trainer known as Mr. O'Beast, according to Polynesian Strength. Sateki began squatting, benching and deadlifting at age 8, while Siua started around age 10 — a routine that has since drawn in younger cousins as well.
Like many young athletes in Utah, the Tongi brothers didn't start out chasing powerlifting records. The KSL report notes that they originally took up the sport as off-season physical preparation for youth football before transitioning into competitive strength meets. Noa Tongi said there has been misinformation about what age children should start lifting, and he has made athlete safety a top priority in how he trains the boys.
Safety, Supervision and Setting the Record Straight
Noa emphasizes proper form, recovery, nutrition and sleep for both brothers, and he helps oversee their development while working to build their confidence and resilience, per KSL's report. Athletes at Polynesian Strength are coached on proper form for every lift and trained to meet competition standards, with an emphasis on technique, consistency and healthy habits before heavy weights enter the picture. They're also taught to safely support one another in the gym — lessons Siua says he leans on as he prepares mentally and physically, focusing on recovery in the lead-up to competition.
Those priorities line up with official rules governing youth meets. USA Powerlifting mandates raw lifting only for competitors ages 8 to 13, banning supportive equipment such as squat suits, bench shirts or knee wraps to keep the focus on technique and safety. The federation also determines a young lifter's competition age by their exact age on meet day in the 8–9, 10–11 and 12–13 brackets, unlike teen and adult divisions, which use calendar birth year — a distinction Noa Tongi has said helps explain how youth divisions work.
What Medical Guidance Says About Youth Lifting
Concerns about kids lifting heavy weights are common, but the American Academy of Pediatrics reaffirmed in a clinical report that properly designed and supervised youth resistance training is safe, does not stunt growth or damage growth plates, and can actually enhance bone mineral density, according to HealthyChildren.org. Separate pediatric sports medicine guidance, reported by Contemporary Pediatrics, notes that the real risks in youth strength training come primarily from unsupervised maximal loading or poor exercise form, not from resistance training itself.
A Community Behind the Barbell
West Valley City's Pacific Islander community provides a deep cultural backdrop for this kind of family-centered strength training. Northwest Salt Lake County, which includes West Valley City, is home to 35.8% of Utah's total Pacific Islander population, according to the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute. Census data cited by the institute also shows Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander residents make up roughly 4.6% of West Valley City's population, one of the highest municipal concentrations in the continental United States.
The Tongi family believes Siua's pursuit of a world record has already inspired people around him and lifted up his community, a sentiment reflected throughout KSL's original reporting on the family. Whatever happens on the platform in Murray, the brothers plan to keep training together at Polynesian Strength, with Noa Tongi continuing to oversee their progress one lift at a time.
