USAWA

By Eric Todd

Our president, Denny Habecker, is sanctioning the 10th installment of the Presidential Cup.  The Presidential Cup is the granddaddy of all record days.  It is to the USAWA what the Gold Cup is to the IAWA.  In the nine years that it has been contested, there have been nine different Presidential Cup champions.  The most recent was Beth Skwarecki with a 55 pound full-gardner in 2021. You will pick one lift to set or break a record in.  If time allows, you can go for a record in a second lift, but only your first lift will be eligible for consideration for the Presidential Cup Championship.

The Presidential Cup will follow along some of the same guidelines as the Gold Cup, which is the IAWA meet which recognizes outstanding performances by lifters in the lift/lifts of their choosing.  The Gold Cup started in 1991 under the direction of then-IAWA President Howard Prechtel.  However there will be some differences in the guidelines of the USAWA Presidential Cup:

• The Presidential Cup is hosted annually by the USAWA President only.
• Must be a USAWA member to participate.
• A lifter may choose any official USAWA  lift/lifts (up to a maximum of 5 lifts) to set a USAWA record/records in.
• The lifter must open at a USAWA Record Poundage on first attempt.
• The top performance record lift of the entire record day,  which will be chosen by the President, will be awarded the PRESIDENTIAL CUP.

Date: August 6, 2022

Location: Habecker’s Gym-Lebanon, PA

Entry: None, but please let Denny know if you are coming.

By Bill Clark

Bill Clark visits with Steve Schmidt and John Carter in Clark’s Championship Gym

This is a two day Affair with a party on Saturday night and a Sunday afternoon pigout at Golden Corral.  The weekend is being used to honor 10 or so folks who were the foundation blocks on which the USAWA was built-and a special lift that was a trademark of those being honored.

The Lifts:

1-Steinborn Lift – To honor Henry “Milo” Steinborn, who was never defeated in his namesake lift.

2-Zercher lift – To honor Ed Senior, a true strongman

3-Harness Lift-Harness lift – To honor Steve Schmidt, still the best ever in the heaviest of all lifts.

4-Hip Lift – To honor John Carter, still the best with the hip belt.

5-Hand and Thigh – To Joe Garcia, still the best ever with the knuckle-buster.

6-Neck Lift – To honor Kerry Clark, who helped design the first USAWA rule book and is still the best ever female in the neck harness.

7-Miller clean and Jerk – To honor Wilbur Miller for all he did for lifting’s every aspect

8-Heels together Deadlift-To honor Art Montini, not only for his deadlifting ability, but his prowess with the hip belt

9-Left Hand Deadlift -To honor Rex Monahan, still the best in his specialty, and the guy who saved more than one meet director with his contributions.

10-Right hand Deadlift- To honor Frank Ciavattone, still the leader in the 1 hand deadlift world and promoter of the sport since day one.

11-Rampage-All the reps you can do with a weight of your choice in the Clean and Press-Heels together in one minute.  To honor two: John Grimek, the greatest all-rounder/odd lifter of all time and Tony Cook from England who joined with me in December 1986 to organize the IAWA, the parent of the USAWA.

It will be a fun weekend. Several still active will be on hand.  Lift in all of the events for a trophy of some kind, lift in those that are fun, or just show up and visit with the crowd and don’t lift anything unless it is a fork and spoon at the food bash.

There will be no entry fee.

Dave DeForest executes a Hip lift at last year’s championship event

By Eric Todd

Meet Announcement

Well, I did what I could to find a venue for this out East to no avail.  So, the Heavy Lift Championship will again be held at ET’s house of iron and stone in Turney, Missouri.  If someone else wants to host next year, please reach out to me. This will be the fourth time we have hosted this event.  We have had a pretty good turnout the other times we have hosted, and hope to have a good turnout this year.  I know the turnaround for the meet has not been a tremendous amount of time, but we did the fall meet last year just to be sure we got the meet in for 2021 with the covid shutdown, but want to get it back into the rotation in May.

Joe Ciavattone Jr. in action with the Hand and Thigh at a past USWA Heavy Lift Champinships.

We will provide bottled water and lunch.  The outhouse got turned over in a windstorm, but we will have it upright by meet time.  We have plenty of iron for some big lifting.  If you have special needs in the way of a neck harness or hip belt, please bring your own.  Otherwise, you can use mine.  I expect some veterans to come out and vie for the title, and we would love to have some newcomers that we can get interested in the heavy lifts.  You will deal in weight you have never lifted before.  No pressure, but I have my sites on a couple young lifters from Clark’s gym to come make their mark on this championship.  So, people make sure your memberships are in order and get your entries into this meet.  Should be a blast!

Date: May 7, 2022

Place: ET’s House of Iron and Stone

Events: Neck Lift, Hand and Thigh, Hip Lift

Awards: Yes

Current USAWA membership for the 2022 year is required of all participants.  This will be a drug tested event.

Heavy Lift-Entry