If Connor Lutz didn't get a lot out of his high school geography courses, he is getting a much better one these days.
Thanks in part to a career in the sport of powerlifting that has taken him through parts of Canada and a good time through Sweden not that long ago.
"I started into powerlifting two years ago," he said via phone call to his parents' home in Yorkton on the Friday of the long weekend.
"I have an excuse to see the world," he offered half joking.
The move into powerlifting involved a little bit of sacrifice.
"This past year, I quit football to get more into powerlifting. It was hard to give up football," Lutz said.
"It's gotten really big in Saskatoon."
The last few months must have been enough to make the 21-year-old student of the University of Saskatchewan feel like a tourist.
In April, he was competing at the powerlifting national championships which were held in Cowtown.
Here are his numbers (note to readers try not to break into a sweat) squatting: 475lbs, bench press, 365lbs, deadlift (pictured above) 530 lbs.
That resulted in a gold medal finish for him.
"I knew there was a chance" of winning, he said, calling in from Saskatoon.
"I went up a weight class for the first time. I'm kind of surprised that I won. Lutz's weight class in that event was the 83 kilogram.
All those numbers qualified him to take part in the International Powerlifting Federation's (IPF) Classic World Cup.
For this, it wasn't just a hop, skip and a jump down the street to a rundown old arena.
Lutz and dad were headed to Stockholm, Sweden. The biggest city and the capital of Sweden with a population hitting nearly 865,000 people.
"My biggest surprise," offers Lutz upon his return to Canada "was it never got dark (in Stockholm)."
Here are his numbers from Sweden. Squat: 500lbs, benchpress 390 lbs, deadllift 540lbs.
Lutz said the 500lb squat weight was his "goal".
Now that the world championships are long done, he said it's going to be time to try and acquire sponsorships.
