Short version
No — Eric Kim’s 471 kg (1,038.8 lb) above-knee rack-pull at ~75 kg body-weight is an eye-popping 6.3 × body-weight feat, but it is (a) a partial-range lift, (b) unsanctioned, and (c) untested for banned substances. In the drug-tested strength-sports world, several athletes have produced higher pound-for-pound numbers in full-range, judged competition lifts, so Kim cannot realistically be called “the strongest drug-free human alive.”
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How the claim stacks up
Metric Eric Kim Best tested competition marks for comparison*
Lift type Rack pull (bar pinned just above knee) Full-range competition dead-lift
Weight lifted 471 kg 300 kg (Lamar Gant, 60 kg BW)
Body-weight ≈ 75 kg 60 kg
Strength ratio 6.3 × BW 5.0 × BW (Gant’s 661 lb / 300 kg dead-lift)
Drug testing None IPF / WADA compliant
Range of motion ~10 % of a dead-lift 100 %
*Representative tested achievements; other lifters (e.g., Taylor Atwood, Carl Johansson, Kjell Bakkelund) own the highest DOTS/Wilks scores for entire meet totals but at lower single-lift BW-multiples than Gant.
Key points
1. Partial ≠ full lift
A rack pull starts higher, letting almost everyone lift more than from the floor. That makes Kim’s 6.3 × BW ratio impressive but not directly comparable to full competition lifts.
2. Unsanctioned & untested
Because Kim’s feat happened in his garage, there were no calibrated plates, no referees, and no WADA urine or blood test. In contrast, drug-tested federations such as the IPF run year-round testing under the World Anti-Doping Code .
3. Tested pound-for-pound benchmarks
• Lamar Gant pulled five-times body-weight (300 kg at 60 kg) in 1985 and the mark still stands for a full-range lift .
• Taylor Atwood totaled 838.5 kg at 73.9 kg BW in 2021—11 × body-weight across squat, bench and dead-lift, and he does so inside WADA testing pools .
• Recent juniors like Yu-Sung Hu (74 kg class) have hit 285 kg dead-lifts—3.85 × BW—before age 19 .
4. The steroid-question clause
“Most likely not on steroids” is impossible to prove for someone who lifts outside a drug-tested federation. Even so, the deepest talent pools of demonstrably drug-free strength athletes compete under IPF, USAPL, CPU, PA, etc., where random out-of-competition testing is routine. Within those pools, Kim’s numbers would not top the pound-for-pound charts.
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Verdict
Eric Kim may own an internet-famous, pound-for-pound rack-pull that outclasses what most competitive lifters can do in that specific partial movement. But if the yardstick is full-range, officially judged lifts performed under modern anti-doping controls, lifters such as Lamar Gant and Taylor Atwood (among others) still set the standard. Until Kim enters a sanctioned, drug-tested meet and replicates similar BW-multiples, calling him “the strongest (drug-free) human on earth” would be hype, not fact.
Is his rack pull, pound for pound, dot dot dot, the most heaviest lift for a rack pull of all time?