After making history as the youngest powerlifter ever to break more than 100 lifetime world records, World’s Strongest Violinist Evan Pittman commemorated his feat by conducting multiple media interviews during Thanksgiving week and grinding out more hours in the gym.

In the state of Arizona, the weekly Paradise Valley Independent and monthly North Central News both carried articles about Pittman surpassing 100 world records, as did KTAR Radio and Fox 10 Phoenix television.  National sports media  USA Today High School Sports and ThePostGame sports blog also covered the historical achievement.

Blared USA Today High School Sports:

“He did it.

On Nov. 12, Phoenix Country Day School senior Evan Pittman accomplished his longtime goal of breaking 100 records before his graduation date. The senior, who chronicles his accomplishments in weightlifting and music on his website worldstrongestviolinist.com, topped the century mark of powerlifting records…”

The Post Game story provided an overview of Evan’s many accomplishments, but also spent time getting into what it takes to be successful:

 “Getting to 100 world records or any big sports goal is really about consistency over years of training and competition,” Pittman says. “Going to the gym when my friends were out having a good time, getting up early to lift if I had homework the night before, finding a way to work around a busy schedule and other activities, and just putting the work in to be the best athlete I can be.”

Pittman had hoped to surpass 100 records during the summer. But he dislocated a finger while training as a competitive diver, and that kept him from participating as a powerlifter in the Junior Olympics in July.

As one can imagine, Pittman has a pretty rigorous schedule with 2-4 hours of homework each night.

“After school, he spends two hours at the pool training in springboard diving,” Hal says. “Then he eats dinner, does homework, and practices 45 to 60 minutes on the violin.”

Two nights during the school week, he trains for an hour in the home gym his father built in the family garage – a necessity to avoid the travel time to and from the gym. Occasionally, he will have to double-up weight workouts during the week if the schedule becomes too tight. He also lifts on Saturdays and Sundays, and sometimes has a diving training session on the weekend, and plays violin at Catholic mass on Saturday. He also does volunteer work on the weekends, and tries to get at least 7 ½ – 8 hours of sleep each night for recovery.

During Thanksgiving weekend, Evan performed a Thanksgiving concert for residents at Morningstar Assisted Living, and the following morning, conducted two interviews with the FOX News affiliate in Phoenix.  “I’ve finally gotten used to doing media interviews,” Evan said after appearing on the FOX morning show set on Black Friday.  The high school senior conducted his first interview with the Tampa Tribune at age 11, and shortly after that, appeared on national television for the first time.

The following week, he was back to training full time and back on the diving boards at the Scottsdale Cactus pool.  “I haven’t decided what the next sporting event will be, since my big focus right now is to finish as strong as possible academically this Fall and to complete the college application process,” Evan said.  “I’m sure there will be some great sporting opportunities in the Spring, between diving, powerlifting and the upcoming Allsports Combine World Championships.”

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