Matthew Tung fell in love with the sport of Olympic weightlifting when he was growing up in Hong Kong.
In the fall of 2015, as a freshman in high school, he began lifting weights. By the next year he was in his first competition—winning it.
Tung started raising close to 400 pounds over his head when he was 16 years old. He now competes with over 600 pounds. Developing techniques of the sport, he says, takes years to develop.
When he came to the U.S., the sport, which is popular in other parts of the world, had not gained much traction here—stemming his ability to compete. He was determined to change that at Northeastern University.
The recent graduate with a health science degree founded the Olympic weightlifting team at Northeastern two years ago. Starting the team was difficult because he had to convince the university that it was a different strength sport from powerlifting, a similar but different activity.
“But we got some interest, we got some coaches, and now we got some scholarships from the USA Weightlifting organization,” Tung says.
