Justin Choy is living his dream with a kind of split screen.

He is a bespectacled, mild-mannered medical student at Texas Christian University’s Burnett School of Medicine. In July he was part of Team USA at the FISU World University Championships Powerlifting in Estonia.

“I’ve thought about it every day since I was 14,” Choy said of reaching the top tournament in his sport. “You know, it definitely felt like I was joining the dark side when I started!”

Choy started powerlifting when he was just a skinny high school student. Over the years, he transformed his body into a powerlifting beast, like Superman to his “Clark Kent” persona in med school.

“There is a difference. When I’m in the gym and I smell the chalk,” Choy said, snapping his fingers. “I turn it on!”

Choy recovered from major surgery, won silver at Nationals, and was named to Team USA. For Choy, powerlifting and medical school are two sides of the same coin.

“You know, powerlifting in high school and college gave me a really great fascination with the human body and what it can do,” Choy said, noting that powerlifting also helped him in medical school.

“It’s discipline. It’s the determination not to give up when things get difficult and not to compromise on important things.”

Powerlifting is not an Olympic discipline. The movements are different from weightlifting, which is an Olympic discipline. Powerlifting is the supreme discipline of its sport at the FISU University World Championships. This year, Choy finished 15th in his weight class.

Choy doesn’t know what his next goal in powerlifting is, but at the top of his list is to graduate from TCU’s Burnett School of Medicine and become a doctor.

“I wanted a job where I felt like I was making a difference,” Choy said.