The Culmination of my Life’s Work
In about 48 hours from now, I will coach Ryan Grimsland at the International Weightlifting Federation’s World Cup here in Phuket, Thailand. It’s the final qualifying event for the 2024 Olympics in Paris. You could say this is the Olympic trials as everyone from all the countries around the world will be trying to slide into the top 10 of his or her weight class. That’s right, to get to the Olympics an athlete has to already be in the top 10 in the world.
I have coached Ryan for 9 years now, so I have watched him grow from a young boy to one of the best weightlifters in the world. I have watched him mature. I was there when he met his first girlfriend. I have watched him fall in love, and I have watched him get his heart broken. He’s more than just some athlete I coach. He’s part of my family. My 7-yr-old son considers Ryan to be his best friend. Not many coaches can say that they have coached an athlete from the very beginning to the very pinnacle of their chosen sport.
Personally, I started lifting weights when I was 11-years-old. I started competing in weightlifting and powerlifting at the age of 12. Forty years I have been learning lessons from the barbell. I had the opportunity to train at the Olympic training center in the sport of weightlifting, and later I went on to break the all-time world record total in powerlifting twice and won three world championships. Now I coach some of the best athletes in the world in many sports.
There’s only one thing left to do in the world of strength, and that’s the Olympics. There’s no way to know what’s going to happen, but Ryan is ready. No matter what happens this is probably my last go around coaching weightlifting, and that realization inspired this blog. The ending of an era in my life, an era of obsession and extreme focus has all of a sudden caused a look back at life so uncommon for most.
This realization sparked a message to my best friend KJ:
“I wish you were here. It feels like the culmination of my life’s work. Way more intense than I was anticipating!
A lifetime of following my heart in a field that most people will never make a dime. There were so many people telling me to quit lifting those weights and to get a real job. Yet, here I am in Thailand at the Olympic Trials, meanwhile people all over the world learn from the things I say and write. I take my whole family to Australia because people want to learn from my life’s work.
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In three days, I will find out if I have taken a 14-yr-old boy from Lewisville, NC and developed him into an Olympian. An Olympian man! One of the very best in the world at a thing!
This moment has finally put me at peace with things. No matter what, I can say I have lived a life following my own path and doing it my own way, and that path has taken me around the world allowing me to write a story for generations to come in my family.
My children’s children will be able to say that my grandfather was courageous. My grandfather was quite extraordinary. He was a world record holder. He coached some of the best athletes in the world. And he taught people around the world how to reach their dreams, and taught others to coach their athletes to reach their dreams.
They will have an example that limits are for others, but not for them. They will have an example of having a dream, and more importantly having the courage to lay it down and reach that dream no matter what anyone else says.
That makes it all worth it.”
I wrote all of that with tears streaming down my cheeks as finally I felt in my heart ‘enough’. I have shown the world that I can indeed thrive in a field that most will fail. However, even more importantly, I have proven to myself that I have accomplished enough. I am at peace with my life, and I am at peace with myself.
I am no longer trying to receive affirmation from people that will never give me what I am looking for. My only aim now is to watch my beautiful wife, Emily Drew, smile each and every day as we watch our children grow up and become young adults. I look forward to watching them take on their own challenges in their own ways. The one thing that they can count on is my love, my support, and my encouragement.
Now it’s time to focus more on the Creator. I want to grow that relationship. Now He’s the only one that I have to impress, and He’s already done the work for me all those years ago on the cross. That anchor I have carried on my back all of these years is finally gone.
I don’t know what’s going to happen at the competition in a couple of days. It doesn’t matter really. I am already proud of Ryan. He’s turned out to be one incredible athlete, and more importantly he’s grown into one impressive young man. We will either be going to Paris for one more ride, or we can look back and say job well done, job well done.
So that’s it. These are a few of my thoughts as I sit here finishing this blog the night before the competition. One last sleep and we will find out if we’ve finally reached that pinnacle in sports, the Olympics. I have dreamed about this moment for over three decades. No matter what happens I am ready to go home, grab my wife and children and let them know that I am all there’s. I might never let go!
