FORTIUS · STRONGER · MAS FUERTE · PLUS FORT · STÄRKER · 更強 · より強い

Akita, JPN, August 21, 2001: On the stage of the Akita City Culture Hall. You can’t miss Brad Gillingham (USA) among the 2001 Akita volunteers getting the equipment ready for the final event: the deadlift. His height, 1,93 m, makes him stand out; his tranquil demeanour is in contrast to that of officious Japanese loading the bar with more weights – between six of them.

Brad had been a thin-framed high jumper once, clearing 2,07 m as his personal best. The jumping days were over, however, the moment he started to work on his strength. And lifting serious weights! Gradually – by working out and by “eating right” – he gained serious weight himself: on August 20, 2001, he weighed in at 145,2 kg! Some of it might be genetic: Gale Gillingham, his father, was an All-Pro linebacker for the Green Bay Packers. Muscle power and bulk are the prerequisites to play American football in that position. But Brad took to another athletic pursuit: to the definitive measure of strength – powerlifting.

Brad Gillingham is the reigning World Powerlifting Championships in the open class, above 125 kg. He has won his first ever international title right here in Akita – one year ago. Many of the spectators have taken a liking to the “Superheavyweight Champ from Minnesota” already then. “Minnesota” gets pronounced to perfection by the locals – after all, the Minnesota State University has a campus in Akita. They cheer for Brad as they do for Daisuke Midote (JPN), their hero and reigning World Champion in the class up to 125 kg. The Japanese lifter has outperformed all others in the squat. He has even set a new national record in the bench press: Daisuke, lying down on the bench, has taken the loaded bar at arm’s length, lowered it down to his chest, paused, and pushed it back up to full arm extension. 302,5 kg were on it!

The crowd is in high spirits. Another Japanese athlete, the decidedly more diminutive Yukako Fukushima, has won the bronze medal in the women’s lightweight class. Yukako, at 47,2 kg, has coped with nearly ten times the weight of her body in only three lifts. She, too, has outdone herself in the bench press: 117,5 kg. Nippon power!

Brad Gillingham’s challenge in the deadlift is a different one: 382,5 kg are on the floor before him, he needs to raise them and assume an erect position. The knees must be locked, the shoulders back, while he holds the bar with a firm grip. Brad does just that. More cheers by the crowd! With a total of 1027,5 kg in all three lifts the American pulls ahead of Jörgen Ljungberg (SWE).

It is Daisuke’s turn in what is not his strongest side. The deadlift is the domain of real giants, something the Japanese lifter is not, at least not by height. He has the volunteers put 310 kg on the bar. Again, it takes six to have the bumper plates attached and the loaded bar rolled to its position. If Daisuke lifts it off the floor, he ties Gillingham’s total and wins The World Games 2001 – by weight. His own that is! On August 20, before the competition even started, he has taken the edge over his opponent: he has weighed in at “only” 131,8 kg.

Daisuke Midote is World Games Champion in Powerlifting – by body weight! After two superb athletes have lifted more than two tons between them, in only six lifts, it is down to a difference of 13,4 kg in their body weight.

 “He eats as much as a family of four and can lift the equivalent of three refrigerators,” writes the Minneapolis Star Tribune about Brad Gillingham. “Think of food as a performance tool! I always eat for performance,” says Brad. Maybe he decides to skip a meal or two prior to competing against Daisuke in The World Games 2005 Duisburg? But then: who can lift a ton on an empty stomach?