Meet Joshua Smith | Amputee Strongman and Powerlifter

We had the good fortune of connecting with Joshua Smith and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Joshua, what do you want your legacy to be?
I’m a childhood cancer survivor and an above the knee amputee. I elected amputation after five years of failed surgeries to save my leg after beating bone cancer. I was diagnosed in 94 and lost my leg in 99. Back then society had a very finite view of what life after amputation meant. Many people would dismiss you as an invalid without knowing anything about you. I remember how hard it was at seventeen years of age struggling with feeling like less and worrying that no one would want to be with a cripple. Medical professionals fed into that, too. They told me I’d never do things like squat and deadlift. I currently hold a state record in deadlift. I do things every week that most people think would be impossible for an amputee.

I want my legacy to be a broad swath carved through the narrow lens that people view the differently abled. I often get asked what keeps me motivated, and that’s what it is. This year I’ve done the USPA Tri City Classic (1st place in two classes), USS America’s Strongest Athlete with Disabilities (1st place), Crown Mountain Strongman (1st place), Strongman Smackdown (1st place), World’s Strongest Disabled Man (3rd place), and the Static Monsters World Championships (2nd place). Every time I pull a truck or shoulder a stone, it’s a challenge to the idea that people with disabilities are less. In a lot of competitions people come up afterward and tell me about someone they know that is an amputee, often they show them videos of me lifting or my social media, and a lot of those people reach out. I wonder how different my life would be if I had even one example of what was possible or what it looked like to challenge those boundaries back when I was a lost seventeen year old kid.

I struggled a lot with depression and PTSD. About forty percent of childhood cancer survivors and a similar number of amputees struggle with PTSD. I found exercise through therapy during my struggle with substance abuse. Honestly, I sometimes wonder if I traded adrenaline for the other addictions dominating my life at the time. Outreach work with other amputees happened by accident. I’d talk with others on social media, and they’d ask how I performed one exercise or the other. They often wouldn’t get what I was trying to explain, so I wound up recording those and putting them on social media. I developed a presence that way that led to me working with a nonprofit called Be More Adaptive. BMA helps connect differently abled people with sports that we can do and helps connect people with organizations that fund them. My area specifically is paralifting and strongman. That led to me becoming an admin in Amputee Health & Fitness on Facebook, which is a group of over three thousand amputee athletes, doctors, prosthetists, occupational & physical therapists, chiropractors, and industry professionals. We have quite a few Paralympians, so if you ask a question on how to achieve a goal, the feedback you get tends to be better than anywhere else.

The part I didn’t expect is in line with the old adage that kindness heals the soul. Childhood cancer took a lot of people from me, and I struggled with survivors’ guilt. That’s how I landed on the path of substance abuse in the first place. I didn’t want to feel that anymore. Working with others, watching them succeed, and being a part of that community helped heal the broken parts of me. It’s often difficult to find purpose in the struggle, but it situated me to offer over two decades of experience on this path to people new to it who are feeling lost. That makes it worth it. I was recently made the United States Strongman State Representative for my state, so it gives me a platform for inclusivity in sports. That’s the next step in my journey. I’m the first state head of a major strongman organization in the US that is also an adaptive athlete. A lot of people talk about how far I’ve come from that out of shape guy with a forty eight inch waist struggling to get around, but I really think we’ve just begun.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
Most people do not guess that I’m a huge nerd outside of the gym. My degrees are Computer Information Systems and Software Engineering Technology. I’ve worked on NSF grants and taught summer classes for the NSF at a university. I’m a systems administrator for an energy company that generates half of my state’s power. Most of my work is security oriented. A lot of people will say that they got where they are by hard work, but just as much luck and professional relationships play into that for me. I am very curious, and I am constantly learning how new things work. When I was selected to teach classes in NSF boot camps they told me it was because I was kind, helpful, and shared my knowledge freely. I guess those themes are shared between my life in sports and my life in technology.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
A lot of tours leave from Denver. I liked the tours of Estes Park and the Rocky Mountain National Park. Some of the areas like Lake Moraine can be difficult to navigate as an amputee, but places like Big Bear Lake are very disability friendly and beautiful. The Red Rocks Park and Amphitheater combines the beauty of nature with a pretty awesome concert venue. The Museum of Nature and Science is a great place if you have kids, especially ones that are into dinosaurs.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
There are too many people to list who have helped me along the way. If I had to choose three, I’d say John Micka who is the USPA chair for my state and owns my gym. He kept at me to join, and when I did, he pushed me to get into powerlifting. There was one day in particular that I was deadlifting, and he walked over and said, “so when are you going to do a meet?” I said, “I don’t think I can be competitive as an amputee.” He said, “you’re repping a state record, you should do one.” Now I hold ten USPA state records.

KC Mitchell is another amputee who really challenged my perception of what it meant to be an amputee lifter. He’s a veteran that lost his leg to an IED. He was also a judge in my second strongman competition. He’s a very prolific powerlifter, benching over five hundred pounds and pulling over 700 beltless. After John had been in my ear, he candidly discussed the logistics of how to achieve my goals. It went a long way to getting me started.

Last but not least is Brad Vinyard. Brad holds multiple national records in powerlifting in the SPF. He’s remarkably humble for someone capable of the feats of strength he can perform. I started my journey dramatically overweight with small arms, and he always responded to messages about training as an amputee when nobody knew who I was. When I started competing, he’d video himself doing the lifts in a competition to help me prepare. I had the honor of competing against him in the Arnold Strongman in 2020. He coaches high school sports, and he volunteers his time with a nonprofit called NubAbility Athletics teaching children with amputations how to lift weights. He also did a lot to inspire me to help others fighting battle similar to my own.

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Image Credits
Richard Culver