Several years ago, Langley student Andrew Shapiro’s father was diagnosed with  stage four colon cancer, and in hopes of raising money for the American Cancer Society, Andrew set out to break the world record for pull-ups.  Shapiro dedicated four to six hours every single day to training in order to prepare for his event at Relay for Life, aiming to break not one but three world records for pull-ups. Successful, Andrew was able to break the standing records for pull-ups in 6 hours, 12 hours, and 24 hours, with 3,515, 5,472, and 7,306 pull-ups respectively.

Andrew practiced in sets of ten pull-ups per minute while watching Star Wars, Indiana Jones, and X-Men. With a colossal time commitment of four to six hours in daily training, Andrew choose not to pursue baseball this year as to focus his efforts on training. Even while Andrew was training, the world pull-up record was raised yet again, though it did nothing to stump his determination.

Looking forward, Andrew hopes to participate in what he considers to be the ultimate physical challenge, the televised American Ninja Warrior obstacle course. However, American Ninja Warrior’s must be at least 21 years of age, putting Andrew on at least a four year waitlist, though he is confident that he will be accepted, he told the Washington Post  “I figure they won’t say no to someone who has the world record for pull-ups.”   Shapiro looks up to the first ever American Ninja Warrior, Geoff Britten.  Britten resides locally, as he also works as a cameraman for the Washington Wizards.  Shapiro hopes he can eventually join Britten as the second American Ninja Warrior winner from the DMV area.

Breaking three world records has drawn an immense amount of media attention, over a dozen websites have covered Andrew’s story. Websites from the Washington Post to internet entertainment news sites such as BroBible.

The record was even harder to break, considering the amount of pull-ups was re-raised while Shapiro was training, making this a more unbelievable feat.

All in all, everyone here at Langley is proud of Shapiro and his accomplishments not only for himself, but to help cancer.

*This article was intended to be published in the June, 2016, issue of The Saxon Scope. Due to an unfortunate printing error, a different story was published in its place.