Just for the record, Charlie has never claimed that Ben squatted to parallel. He performed two sets of 6 reps at 600 lbs down to a bench. While not quite parallel, it was still lower than most sprinters would go.
I recall watching video footage during the 1980s of some squatting by Ben. The Canadian media covered Ben’s progress and would sometimes show him in the weight room doing a workout. Because he was moving a lot of weight, they would show him benching and squatting. The one notable thing that I noticed was that he did not even appear to be struggling during his sets.
So, I think we can agree that Ben was an anomaly, with his strength levels far exceeding that of anyone other world class sprinter. An anomaly, not a template…