Dear USAW: Please Help Our Sport Grow

The author, Leonard Bacino, started weightlifting in the early 1970s. He stopped weightlifting in 1981 to pursue a career in Chemical Engineering. After a 22 year hiatus he started weightlifting again as a master and won the 2007 Masters National Championship in the +105 kg class. He currently lives in Queens NY and when not weightlifting he works as a technical writer and computer consultant in NYC. He can be contacted at lbacino@hotmail.com.

What do You Get from the USAW

If you want to compete in Olympic lifting in the USA you must be a card carrying member of the USAW. But what does the USAW do for the weightlifting community?  We all know that they provide automatic insurance coverage for registered lifters at sanctioned contests, and you can get discounts on rental cars. But are the $40 membership fee and fees collected from sanctioned contests really helping to grow our sport?

Will USAW Policies Get Us More Great Lifters like Tom DiFilippi?

Back Then it was the AAU

When I first started lifting in the early 1970s there was one umbrella organization for virtually all amateur sports in the USA. This organization was the Amateur Athletic Union or the AAU. If you wanted to weightlift competitively, you had to join the AAU. For better or worse, the AAU had a stranglehold over most amateur sports. They ruled with an iron fist enforcing the concept of amateurism in sports. That is no amateur athlete could receive money or gifts in return for their athletic endeavors; thus creating a clear line of demarcation between professional athletes and amateurs. To be sure, this was a worthy goal: It gave all amateurs a level playing field, and it worked for many years on a national level. However, throughout the rest of the world athletic competitions became a tool for countries to showcase their nationalism and perceived superiority. These countries supported their athletes in the form of housing, meals and stipends and outright cash.

While at the collegiate level, the USA could hold its own with the rest of the world, outside of academia, elite American athletes were struggling to train at their sport while supporting themselves. The USA was losing ground in many sports on the international level. Many promising American athletes such as Paul Anderson, Jim Thorpe and Marvin Eder were summarily banned for life by the AAU simply because they received compensation for exhibitions or public appearances. Something had to change. 

Yielding to the new realities of the athletic landscape, the AAU and USA Olympic committee relaxed the rules, so that national teams now could include professionals. Most visible among these were the professional basketball, hockey, and soccer players who would take time out to represent the USA in international competitions. But what about our weightlifters? Olympic weightlifting has never been a professional sport in this country. The Father of American Weightlifting, Bob Hoffman, is no longer here to amass the best lifters in the country and provide them with jobs and a training-friendly environment. Alas, the York Barbell Club is long gone. 

Enter the USAW

The USAW (USA Weightlifting) was created to foster American weightlifting and build a competitive national weightlifting team. The USAW in conjunction with the Olympic committee provides a world-class Olympic training facility in Colorado Springs, which is an incubator for our best athletes to grow into elite weightlifters. Weightlifters invited to Colorado Springs can expect to receive the best coaching and scientific methods available to advance their skills. Yes, at the top echelon, the USAW is fulfilling its mission: To give our elite athletes the best training available; to mold future champions; and to make the USA a weightlifting power in the international arena. But what does the USAW do at the grassroots level? I am sorry to say “Not much.”

Current Situation

Imagine this: A youth sees a weightlifting exhibition at his high school. Impressed by the display of strength, skill, and speed he decides to learn Olympic lifting. He walks into a gym, engages the services of a coach, and learns the lifts. His peers, curious of his new activity, follow him to the gym. Some of them become interested in the sport and participate. Before long, some of their friends and contemporaries also become engaged in the sport. Out of this growing group of new lifters, some will exhibit exceptional ability and compete against lifters from other clubs in the area. Eventually they will compete on a statewide or national level. Now imagine that this was happening all over the USA. Wow, now we have a breeding ground for champions.

Unfortunately, this is just a dream; under the current system, this cannot happen. Why? First, there are no weightlifting exhibitions. When was the last time you saw Olympic weightlifting performed anywhere outside of a sanctioned competition. How can you aspire to compete in a sport that you do not know exists?  Second, where can you find an Olympic lifting gym? In the 5 boroughs of New York City, a city of over 8 million people, there is only one dedicated Olympic lifting program. Third, assuming you found a place to lift, who is going to show you the proper technique? Where can you find a qualified coach? Such is the sad situation today.

The Great Bob Hoffman: Father of American Weightlifting

Master lifters such as these are essential to growing our sport.

The USAW Needs to Act

This need not be the case. The USAW needs to publicize our sport, with a focus towards increasing awareness and participation among youth at a grassroots level. How can they do this? For a start: 

• Create the position of Weightlifting Ambassador, whose mission would be to work with local weightlifting committees to organize exhibitions at high schools, colleges, gyms, fairs, or anywhere there is a potential audience. At these exhibitions, hand out brochures describing the rules of the sport and identifying local gyms where Olympic lifting can be learned.

• Change Weightlifting USA magazine so that it appeals to a wider audience. Get it distributed to major chain bookstores and magazine shops so that you can find it on the shelf next to Power Lifting USA or Iron Man. You never know, some kid will pick up the magazine and get interested. Hey, remember Strength & Health?

• Work with local government and public and private gyms to make weightlifting a bona fide sport in recreation centers and athletic facilities. Stress that weightlifting is a small footprint sport and all they need is a platform and a set of weights. Master lifters and volunteers from the local weightlifting committee can provide the coaching and contribute equipment.

• Set a goal whereby within 10 years there will be an Olympic lifting program in every major American city such that any resident will be able to learn and train Olympic lifting.

• Utilize the population of master lifters to coach and spread the sport. Mature and seasoned lifters are natural candidates for volunteering and participating in grassroots weightlifting activities. They are a valuable resource and should not be ignored by the USAW.

Perhaps this is a pipe dream, but dreams can come true. It is essential that the USAW devote its energies to increase participation in weightlifting at the grass roots level.

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Copyright 2007 ― Leonard Bacino