Ali Jawad

Ali Jawad is a British Paralympic powerlifter born on 12 January 1989 who competes in the 59 kg class. Born without legs, he spent his first six months in his parents homeland of Lebanon before the family moved to Tottenham, London, to escape conflict. He took up powerlifting at 16 after competing as an international level judoka, won junior world silver in 2006 and European gold in 2007, and finished fourth at the 2012 Summer Paralympics in London. In 2013 he took gold at the Asian Open Championships with a world record lift of 185.5 kg, and at the 2014 IPC Powerlifting World Championships in Dubai he became World Champion in his class with another world record of 190 kg. He also supports charities for sufferers of Crohn disease, with which he is diagnosed.