[caption id="attachment_43942" align="alignright" width="1020"]<a href="https://staging.yourislandnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/RES3856.jpg"><img class="size-large wp-image-43942" src="https://staging.yourislandnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/RES3856-1024x731.jpg" alt="" width="1020" height="728"></a> C.J. Cummings of Beaufort works out Wednesday morning, March 25 as he trains for the 2020 Olympics. The Games have been postponed until Summer of 2021, but the laid back Cummings doesn’t seem to mind. Photo by Bob Sofaly.[/caption]

<b>By Mike McCombs</b>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">“THIS JUST IN, CJ NOW HAS A YEAR AND FOUR MONTHS TO MAKE HIMSELF THAT MUCH BETTER!”</span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">That was the text message Team Beaufort coach Ray Jones sent to The Island News at 9:09 a.m. on Monday, March 30.</span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Jones had just learned that the 2020 Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo had been moved to the summer of 2021 as a result of the worldwide COVID-19 novel coronavirus outbreak.</span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">And C.J. is C.J Cummings, the 19-year-old weightlifting phenom from Beaufort who had been waiting four years since missing out on the 2016 U.S. Olympic team to compete on the world’s biggest stage.</span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Cummings, the four-time defending Junior World Champion and the defending Pan American Champion in the 73-kilogram weight class, is the No. 1 weightlifter in the United States and ranked fifth in the world. The Olympics were a lock for Cummings.</span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Unlike his coach, he was justifiably disappointed, at least at first.</span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">“At first, I just wanted (the Olympics) to happen,” Cummings said. “I had been waiting for four years and I was a little upset. But after it sank in, I think it will be good to have an entire year to train and get even better.”</span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">After it sank in … and he talked to Jones.</span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">“It’s going to make him more mature,” Jones said. “He’s going to be better with that, with another year of training. For them to pump the brakes and put it on hold for a year is a good thing.”</span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Jones also believes, with the field virtually locked in, and all eyes on the top competitors, it increases the chances of a level playing field, at least as far as doping goes.</span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">“The countries that are dirty, they’re going to be watching them hard,” Jones said. “My guys welcome the scrutiny.”</span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Cummings, whose parents Savasha and Clarence Sr. plan on making the trip to Japan, now finds himself with nothing immediate for which to train.</span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">He is not in a training cycle because everything has been canceled for the next three to four months, he said. His next competition wouldn’t be until the end of the year.</span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">“I’m just building. It’s not hard, I’m just getting better,” Cummings said. “I’m not competing with anybody else, I’m competing with myself to get better.</span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Aside from training he says he’s not doing much. Exercising and hanging around the house.</span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">“I like to maybe go out and drive around,” he said.</span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Jones said he’s not worried about Cummings’ down time.</span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">“If it were some other athletes I know … I’ve got another one who is stressed out to no end. C.J. just isn’t built that way, Jones said. “He’s even more focused. He’s not the norm. He never has been.&nbsp;</span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">“I’m sure there are things that he holds in, but you sure don’t see it in his performance.”</span>