Andy is the head coach at the Olympic Training Center in Northern Michigan. We were training partners for a few years in the 90’s. He was a great training partner. We had a great team at that time; Andy, Mark Cannella, Francisco Coello, JP Nicoletta, John Garhammer, Timmy Chin, Diana Fuhrman, Leslie Musser, Thienan Nguyen, Joe Carbone, and Emmy Vargus. And the warden of that insane asylum was Bob Takano

Our entire lives, for many years revolved around only one thing, finding ways to Snatch and Clean and Jerk more weight. When we weren’t training we were talking about training or watching training videos. We were always together.

It was an amazing (or some would say crazy) time in my life and I’m a better man because I had the opportunity to share that experience with Andy and the rest of the freak show.

Thank you for the memories!

News Clip Of How Andy Tysz Is Making America Strong!

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Erol Bilgin, competing in the 62-kilogram category, clinched the gold medal in the snatch contest and won two silver medals in the clean and jerk event and in the overall at the ongoing 21st European Men’s Weightlifting Championship in the Italian city of Lignano.
Bilgin lifted 135 kilograms in the snatch event and took the gold as he weighed less than his rival, Russian Sergei Petrosian, who won the silver. Moldovan Vladimir Popov won the bronze, lifting 130 kilograms.
The Turkish weightlifter won the silver medal in the clean and jerk contest by lifting 160 kilograms. His Russian rival Petrosian lifted 167 kilograms to win an open victory and grab the gold. The winner of the bronze was the Azeri weightlifter Zülfügar Suleimanov, who lifted 158 kilograms. Petrosian also broke the European youth weightlifting record with 167 kilograms.

In the overall, Petrosian clinched the gold with 302 kilograms; Bilgin won the silver with 295 kilograms, and Popov took the bronze with 284 kilograms.
Bilgin was given his silver medal by State Minister for Sports Murat Ba?esgio?lu and President of the Turkish Weightlifting Federation Hasan Akku?.

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Eleven members of the Greek national weightlifting team — reportedly 5 men and 6 women – have tested positive for banned substances, the Greek Weightlifting Federation said on Friday.

Names of the athletes were not released pending confirmation of the tests from March 7, performed on 14 athletes at Athens’ Agios Kosmas training center. The federation said the tests were conducted by the World Anti-Doping Agency on orders from the International Weightlifting Federation.

“In surprise out-of-competition tests run by WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency) on the orders of the International Weightlifting Federation, the A samples of 11 (out of 14) athletes turned out positive,” it said in a statement.

National team coach Christos Iakovou, 60, credited with building the 90’s “Dream Team” that won several medals at the Olympics and World Championships, had handed in his resignation and had been suspended pending the investigation.

The federation said it would test the B samples before setting up a special committee to investigate the issue affecting the majority of the team.

News reports further suggested that the majority of the 11 athletes implicated are senior level, and not members of the team that recently took part in the European Union Championship in Germany.

The team’s participation at the Beijing Games, where they were planning to send 5 men and 2 women, is now in serious doubt, according to a federation official speaking on condition of anonymity.

“Given the very large number of positive tests, and if the B samples are positive as well, then the team as a whole could be banned from competing in the Beijing Games,” the federation official said.

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LOS ANGELES, March 23 (Xinhua) — The U.S. weightlifting men’s team will be represented by two athletes on the Olympic platform at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, the U.S. Olympics Committee (USOC) said on Sunday.

Powered by consistent performances by all eight men competing for the U.S. at the 2008 Pan American Weightlifting Championships and final Olympic qualifier, this weekend in Callao, Peru, the U.S. men’s team secured two Olympic slots.

“I am extremely proud of our team,” said Dennis Snethen, Interim Executive Director for USA Weightlifting.

“We accomplished our goal for this competition which was to secure the two available Olympic slots. All of our guys contributed to this success with consistent lifts in a high pressure meet. Now we move on to the Olympic Trials in Atlanta, Georgia in May where these teammates will now compete to see who the two Olympians will be.”

Canada also secured two Olympic slots and Brazil, Ecuador and Argentina each earned one Olympic slot a piece through their team’s performances at this important event.

The top eight U.S. men represented the USA at this critical event. The event was full of pressure for these eight individuals as U.S. representation on the men’s 2008 Olympic platform was dependent upon their combined performances.

Following the conclusion of the 2007 World Weightlifting Championships in Chiang Mai, Thailand, in September, the U.S. men thought they had done enough to secure three Olympic slots as they sat in a 27th place combined finish from the results of the 2006 and 2007 World Championships.

This would have made the U.S. the final country to qualify slots for the Olympic Games. Christmas of 2007 was not kind to the USA men as the grinch (in the form of the International Weightlifting Federation website) visited, taking away the three Olympic slots that the team had thought they had secured.

The International Weightlifting Federation re-calculated the team standings following doping positives by athletes from other teams and, despite the fact that no one on the U.S. team tested positive, the U.S. men dropped one position in the overall team rankings, thus losing the three Olympic slots they thought they had earned.

The shift in order, due to doping positives in teams that finished above Team USA, caused a re-shuffling of points and the final mathematical breakdown moved Chinese Taipei above the United States leaving the U.S. men’s team as the first team not qualified for the Olympic Games.

The eight men that secured 2008 Olympic participation for the USA will move onto the 2008 U.S. Olympic Team Trials for Weightlifting, May 16-17 in Atlanta, Georgia, where they will be vying with 22 other men for two positions and a chance to perform on the Olympic platform in Beijing.

For the eight men that represented the United States at the 2008 Pan American Weightlifting Championships, this event will count as their National Championships in regards to ranking going into the Olympic Trials and will be their secondary Olympic qualifying event.

Sean
www.PureStrength.com

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MEDWAY, Mass. – Cybex International, Inc., a leading manufacturer of premium exercise equipment for the commercial and consumer markets, announced today that it has entered into an alliance with Power Lift allowing CYBEX to increase its product offerings to the institutional markets, which includes high schools, sports performance centers, military/government, collegiate and pro-team markets. Power Lift is the leading manufacturer of heavy duty free-weight equipment, Olympic Lifting platforms and athletic performance based training equipment.
Ed Pryts, CYBEX’s Senior Vice President of North America Sales stated, “The partnership with Power Lift will allow us to expand our distribution and bring more product solutions to athletic departments around the country. CYBEX is a performance brand, and our alliance with Power Lift shows our commitment to this market.” Power Lift allows CYBEX to enhance its product mix to include modular free-weight lifting stations such as power racks, multi racks, and half racks. These are specialty products that CYBEX does not manufacture, but will help round out its product offering to athletic and performance training centers.
This arrangement also provides Power Lift’s sales team the ability to sell CYBEX products in the key markets it serves. “Power Lift is a leader in athletic performance strength training equipment, and through our relationship with CYBEX, both brands have the opportunity to gain greater market awareness and penetration in the collegiate and professional sports arena,” stated Jeff Conner, Power Lift’s CEO.
CYBEX and Power Lift are both innovators and premium manufacturers within their respective market spaces. This alliance is a strategic fit and solution which aligns with CYBEX’s goals to position and strengthen itself in specialty markets. Increasing CYBEX’s presence with colleges and universities, as well as with pro teams and other performance facilities, is part of CYBEX’s overall plan for continued targeted growth in specific specialty markets.

Sean
www.PureStrength.com

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KYLE PIERCE has been elected vice president of the Pan-American Weightlifting Federation Executive Board. His term will last four years. The LSU-Shreveport associate professor of kinesiology and health sciences was named president at a recent international meeting in Santiago, Chile. Local weightlifters, including an LSU-S student coached by Pierce, will compete in the upcoming USA Weightlifting National Championship in Columbus, Ohio, and the Pan-American Championship on March 17 in Lima, Peru. Both are Olympic qualifying events. Olympic trials will be held in May.

Sean
www.PureStrength.com

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NEW DELHI (Reuters) – India’s Egyptian weightlifting coach has quit after a lengthy row with federation chiefs, during which he alleged doping by the country’s senior lifters.

Magad Salama, who forwarded his resignation to the state-run Sports Authority of India (SAI) some time ago, said on Tuesday he was waiting for it to be accepted so he could return home.

“I didn’t get an answer, but maybe today or tomorrow I will,” he told Reuters.

“I’m closing this thing, I don’t have any relationship with weightlifting in India,” he said. “I don’t have any comment about the situation here.”

A senior SAI official confirmed Salama’s resignation was on the verge of being accepted.

India’s lifters were thrust into the spotlight when positive tests in high-profile competitions led to a suspension in 2006.

Even though the country’s only medal at the Sydney Olympics was won by a weightlifter, so far no Indian lifters have qualified for the Beijing Games.

A senior federation official said Salama had demanded a free hand to pick mostly juniors for the upcoming Asian championship — an Olympic qualifying event — after he had raised concerns about doping by senior lifters. The federation secretary Balbir Bhatia said existing selection procedures could not be totally ignored.

“He has given media statements that Indian lifters are on drugs,” Bhatia told Reuters. “You can’t call a man a thief unless there is proof.”

He said that from an estimated 75 tests conducted on Indian lifters in the past year, only one, a junior male, had tested positive.

The coach was also upset when many weightlifters boycotted a training camp. Bhatia said some juniors stayed at their regional centres to concentrate on studies and others remained at a camp run by the army.

“Our stand is we will hold trials and whoever performs well will be picked by the selection committee,” he said. “We told him he should understand the system in the country.”

Sean
www.PureStrength.com

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