When people get started in Olympic weightlifting, they usually want to know who the best athletes in the sport are. We can all remember when we started our careers, when we learned about the superstars in the game. We knew their names, how much they lifted, what championships they won, etc. In most cases, I think lifters like to know who the best in their weight class is. It’s fun to pinpoint the champions who compete in your class because they serve as a benchmark for your own lifts.
 
When I started competing in the old 90 kg class back in the early 90s, the two best lifters in the country were Bret Brian and Paul Fleschler. These guys were animals who went head to head at every big meet, nailing incredible lifts and winning championships as they inspired the upcoming young athletes like me. Both of them went on to make the 1992 Olympic Team, and Paul decided to transition into coaching when his competitive career finished in 1996. He now makes his living bringing future generations of athletes into the sport he’s spent his whole life in. Over the years, Paul and I have become friends, and it’s an honor to share his weightlifting story with you.
 
Tell us about your background. Where are you from, where do you currently live, what’s your occupation, family life, what kind of sports background do you have outside of lifting, etc.
 
I grew up in the Chicago area in a town called Northbrook. I currently reside in Colorado Springs. When I am not coaching my club, Front Range Weightlifting, I sell medical devices for a company called COOK Medical. I am married to Tina, who I met skiing, which is also one of my favorite activities outside of lifting. I also take advantage of the outdoors in Colorado. In my free time I like to mountain and road bike, cross-country ski, snowshoe, hike (well not really but my wife likes it so I am forced to like it, too), kayak, (fly)fish, camp... pretty much all outdoors stuff. 
 
Describe your weightlifting history. When/how did you start? Who were your coaches? What were your proudest accomplishments?
 
I first saw weightlifting during the 1976 Olympics when Alexeev was competing. (I wound up meeting him at the 2004 Athens Games). Then, I saw weightlifting live when the 1982 National Champs were held at my high school. I saw those big dudes from Sayre Park like Jeff Michels, Rich Johnson, Mike Karchut lift and I knew I wanted to try it. This was in May and I was starting high school in the fall. There was this strength coach Chuck Hansen there who was actually the meet director for the Nationals and he ran a summer strength & conditioning camp for football. I joined that camp that summer and that's how I got started in lifting. It was really kind of fortuitous because we had ten weightlifting platforms at my high school which at that time was unheard of. But Coach Hansen really believed that the lifts would make you a better athlete. We had a weightlifting team, too, the Spartan Ironmen, and we would compete in local and national events throughout the year. 
 
Coach Hansen started me in my weightlifting career, but he realized his limitations. Our high school held a local competition in 1984 and Roger Nielsen, head coach of Sayre Park, saw me compete there and a couple months earlier at the National Juniors (where I got second to Olympian Albert Hood... but it wasn't close). He talked with Coach Hansen about coaching me for higher-level competitions and thus my introduction to the legendary Weightlifting Club of Sayre Park. 
 
I first started going to Sayre Park only on Saturdays where people would seriously drive six hours to train with Roger and the lifters there. Melanie Getz would drive from St Louis, the Eigenberger brothers would drive from Milwaukee and others from everywhere around the Chicago area. Olympians like Karchut, Michels, Fred Lowe, Rich Schutz would train there regularly along with other lifters like Rodger DeGarmo, Mark Levell, Wrenn Norvell, Mike Gattone, Geoff Eliason, the Lentine brothers, and the list goes on and on. It was one of the most fantastic lifting clubs to come up in. It formed friendships that I have to this day. It really had the biggest impact on my life. 
 
As I got more serious as a lifter and as I grew older, I started going to Sayre Park three times a week on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays. I would train in my garage up to six times more so I was training nine times a week from the time I was 18 up until a couple years before my retirement from lifting when I cut it back to five or six training sessions. 
 
We had a great junior team and we won the team award at the 1988 Jr. Nationals in Sumner, WA held by John Thrush. It was a great competition. I lifted well enough to win best lifter. I was a 90kg lifter at the time and my lifts were 135kg and 177.5kg. This was my last year as a junior and Dean Goad, Dave Phillips and myself qualified for the Olympic Trials in Boca Raton, FL. We were the only juniors there. It gave me a real advantage I would discover at the 1992 Trials. 
 
In 1990, Roger would move to the Phoenix area for his job, which left us without a coach at Sayre Park. Just prior to the 1990 World Champs, Rich Schutz, Dave Langon of The Sports Palace and I were invited to train with Dragomir Cioroslan for an extended training camp at the OTC. I thrived and did really well at my first Worlds, making a PR snatch of 152.5kg and equaling my best Total of 337.5kg. After the Worlds, the Board of Directors offered Dragomir the resident coach position and I applied for one of the six openings. I would get the spot and was joined by Wes Barnett, Tim McCrae, Jeff Macy, Jim Hewelt, and Chris Leroux. We were the six charter members of the now very established resident program. I stayed there until after the 1992 Olympics before moving back to Chicago to finish college.
 
At those '92 Trials, it was bittersweet because I lifted well enough to make the team but only as an alternate, meaning the only possibility I would have to lift is if someone got injured. It was a great experience, but it made me more motivated for the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. I had a great quad up to those Trials. My knees were starting to feel all the lifts and they were really giving me issues from just prior to the 1995 Worlds up until the 1996 Nationals in Shreveport where on my third C&J with 192.5kg I ruptured my patella tendon thus ending my weightlifting career. 
 
In April of 1995, Frank Eksten, the strength & conditioning coach of Indiana Basketball, invited me to Bloomington for a graduate assistantship. I jumped at the opportunity because there still was no coach at Sayre Park and I could not find a job that where I could keep training. Frank coached me up until my last competition. Frank was a really underrated Weightlifting coach: very knowledgeable, personable, but also well respected in the field. I'm glad I got to be an athlete under him. 
 
Some of my career highlights:
1988 National Jr. Champ- 90kg
2-time Jr. World team- 1987 (75kg) and 1988 (90kg)
2-time National Champ (1993-94)
4-time World Team member (1990, 1991, 1993, 1994 withdraw due to injury, 1995)
1991 Pan American Games bronze medalist
1992 Olympian
American record holder in two weight categories (91kg & 99kg)
Many times international competitor in minor international competitions
Resident athlete
 
You’ve made the transition from athlete to coach in the sport. What are the similarities and differences between those two lifestyles?
 
Well, lifting is WAY easier! I only had to worry about one thing... lift the weight. In coaching, there are so many other things to worry about. Did I peak my lifter at the right time, will they make weight, did they make their travel arrangements, did they register and on and on and on. Almost always I don't have to worry about those things but they do cross my mind and I ask them if they have taken care of business and the answer is almost always yes. The best thing about the two lifestyles is that I am still active in the sport and each competition I am seeing past lifters making a comeback in the form of coaching which is really good to see. 
 
Describe some of the obstacles you face, or maybe some things that frustrate you in your weightlifting life. What kinds of changes would you like to see, either personally or with the sport in general?
 
My weightlifting life is really very good. I am in the right place right now. Coaching my club and seeing adolescents grow up into responsible adults. Some of my lifters have been with me for seven, eight, or nine years... really, where has the time gone?
 
One change I would like to see in the sport would be to stop adding all these qualifying competitions and arbitrarily adding athletes to major international teams just prior to the event. It really is unfair and it is not the way to go about doing things. Sometimes you just have to go with what you have and give every possible advantage to those athletes instead of keeping them in suspense and have them wonder if they are going to be on the team. This is no way to train for big international competitions. Those athletes need all the support they can get and by continuing to add competitions and athletes is frustrating and counterproductive. 
 
What are your plans and goals for your coaching career? How do you see your future in the sport?
 
I'm a lifer! I will coach until the day I die. That's God's honest truth. I don't have any specific coaching goals other than to keep coaching. I also don't see too much change in the sport. I could be wrong there but weightlifting is a traditional sport and I think it will stay that way. 
 
Who are some of your major influences, people you look up to, etc.? Who are the people you want to thank for your success?
 
Man, so many people have had a huge influence on me. First, I have been really blessed by the Man upstairs, and my parents of course had a huge part in my success. Of course Coach Hansen, but Roger has really been the one who has made the biggest influence on my life because he coached me in my formative years. He truly to this day is not only my coach but a father to me. Dragomir obviously had a huge role in my lifting career. He really made us aware of the science of lifting and how much science can positively alter outcome. Frank coached me at the end of my career and served as a mentor to my transition to a professional role as a coach. Al Vermeil, strength coach of the Chicago Bulls, showed me how to adapt the Olympic movements to other sports. My teammates at Sayre Park like Rich, Gattone, Gary Kostrubala, Jeff Nootens, the Lentines, Rodger DeGarmo, Jeff Michels, Mark Levell, Mark LeMenager, Melanie and there are so many others. Too many to name. Then at the OTC there was that first group and then Mark Henry, Jasha, Pietro, Santillo, Bob Morris, Lyn Jones… and I am sure I am leaving out so many more. Lifelong friendships renewed at every competition. It really is a good time to be involved in the sport of weightlifting! 
 
We need more Paul Fleschlers in this sport. Thanks for your time Paul, and good luck with all the tremendous work you’re going to continue to do for weightlifting!