USAWA

By Bill Clark

In August 5-6, 1961, an unusual weightlifting meet was held in L.A. Nickell Park. It included what would eventually become known as the power lifts and added such odd lifts as the neck lift, one-hand deadlifts, etc.

One of the lifters in that competition was a 24-year-old Kansas Citian named Dave Hahn. He was a quiet lifter and quite strong. He was the best in the neck lift.

A year later, he appeared again at a pair of meets at the Federal Prison at Leavenworth and was one of the top lifters in an elite field. He came and went for the next few years, always quiet and quite strong at around 200 pounds.

In 1991, he showed up at Clark’s Gym and spent two days lifting in the infamous strength test named the Ed Zercher Strength Classic – a 13-lift affair that may be the toughest test of strength in the entire lifting world. He came up against Steve Schmidt, Joe Garcia and John Carter – three guys who battled for years for the Zercher title and that was the last we saw of Dave Hahn in Columbia for the next 30 years.

He plans to return this coming Saturday and take on Carter and a new cast of outstanding chain lifters in the Steve Schmidt Backbreaker Pentathlon – the five heaviest lifts in sanctioned competition in the U.S. All-round Weightlifting Association. He is 84 years old and lifted in only three competitions since he was here 30 years ago.

 

One of those competitions was earlier this month when he entered the three-lift USAWA National Heavy Lift Championships in Turney, Mo. He finished second and almost took the title from the defending champion, Eric Todd, 38 years his junior, who weighed 261 pounds. Dave weighed in at 137.

He did a 400-pound neck lift, a 450-pound hand-and-thigh lift, and a 900-pound hip lift – all records in the 65-kg. weight class for guys as old as dirt.

The Backbreaker will add both the back lift and the harness lift to the three lifts above. He has done neither in competition since his last visit here.

Steve’s Backbreaker Pentathlon is named for Steve Schmidt, a cattle farmer and fertilizer dealer, who had many battles with Harrisburg’s John Carter and Joe Garcia of Columbia in the super-heavy lifts. Schmidt will be on hand Saturday to serve as the main official in the competition named for him.

Carter will be on hand to take on the world as a 62-year-old. He still holds the all-time hip lift record, set in 1994, of 2,525 pounds. Schmidt remains unchallenged in the back lift (3,050 lbs.) and in the harness lift (3,515 lbs.). Garcia, who now lives in Iowa, remains the hand-and-thigh record holder at 1,910 pounds.

Garcia, who has spent the past quarter of a century as the powerlifting commissioner for the Show-Me State Games, is a tentative entry in Saturday’s get-together.

Carter has recently returned to competition as a 62-year-old and set the hip lift record for his age group at 1,810 pounds – after a 15-year hiatus.

Abe Smith, a former gym member who is now a civil engineer in Kansas City, is the early favorite in the Pentathlon after winning the United States All-round Weightlifting Association national title in June and currently leading the title race in the grueling British Strength Athletes’ Guild 12-month postal competition.

Joining the Saturday competition will be Dave DeForest (age 61) of Fulton, who finished third in recent USAWA Heavy Lift meet; Nick Frieders, a 21-year-old on his way up; veteran Tony Hose (age 52); Tony Lupo, (55) a newcomer to the USAWA, who is the chairman of the Boone County Republican Central Committee; County Commissioner Janet Thompson (63), if her busy schedule allows; and even Ol’ Clark, who has a chance to set five records in the 85-89 age group because there are none.

There may be others.

But the person to watch will be Dave Hahn.

Over a recent lunch at Dempsey’s Barbecue in Concordia, I had the opportunity to discover how a person can come and go for 60 years and lift at an elite level if and when he appears. I learned how he could drop 60 pounds through those years and maintain his strength, flexibility and competitive drive.

THE DAVE HAHN STORY

He was born May 4, 1937, in Kansas City, one of three children of Clarice and Ray Hahn. A 1955 graduate of Paseo High School, he played no high school sports, but gravitated to the weight room at the Kansas City Downtown YMCA, a lifting center in the mid-1950s.

He was a student first and a lifter second. Dave earned the first of four degrees in 1960 – a bachelor’s sheepskin in mechanical engineering from the University of Kansas.  After adding a master’s degree from KU and a doctorate in engineering from Kansas State, he earned a master’s degree in electrical engineering in 1971 from the University of Missouri.

Strength training was always part of his program and he competed as time allowed. He married a registered nurse named Carolyn in 1963 and she is still the love of his life 58 years later.

The marriage produced two children, Kristin and Brian, neither a weightlifter, and three grandchildren, all now in their early 20s.

Dave took his engineering skills to the Bendix Corporation until 1992, then began a 21-year commute to Milwaukee – a major reason why he disappeared from the lifting scene in these parts.

For the past five decades, he has devoted his training and conditioning to his career and to his family. He has a well-equipped home gym (he also had one in his apartment in Milwaukee) and he has been dedicated to three main areas of conditioning.

He began running as he neared age 30, going six to eight miles a day for many years. He still hit’s the road for three miles a day four days a week.

He has been very conscious of his diet and for years has followed a basic Mediterranean diet. And – he works with the iron a minimum of three days a week.

 

“I do a lot of different things with the weights. I have a hip belt and a harness, a neck harness and a heavy-duty two-inch bar and I do things I enjoy. I do alternate push-pull workouts.

“I guess you can say that my workouts are like a benign disease. They are a part of my life as much as my family and my career.”

We should all be so dedicated.

Dave has survived bladder cancer and, when he needs quiet time, he heads to DeKalb County where he has a 142-acre farm with two ponds.

“The place is for hunting and fishing – and I do neither, but the family does. I just enjoy being there.”

Dave’s life has been well-lived – with dedication and a quiet sense of who and where he is.

Don’t sell him short come Saturday.

Clark’s Gym eagerly awaits Dave Hahn’s return after a 30-year absence.

Saturday is a time to mingle with some of the nation’s greatest all-round lifters – Smith, Carter, Schmidt, Garcia, Hahn. The ticket price is right – free. But bring your own chairs if you want to be seated.

We’ll start the lifting around 9:30 a.m. The gym is heated, and we have an indoor toilet. What more can a guy ask.?

You’ll be glad you came.