Iron Chisel continues to dominate when it comes to lifting weights.
Mount Waddington’s Special Olympics powerlifting team travelled down to Victoria to compete in a Vancouver Island regional competition against other high level athletes, and they came back home with three gold medals and one silver to show for it.
Coaches Chris Stewart and Rob Engel drove the team of four lifters (John Bee, Anthony Schofield, Dominic Parsons and Thomas Tenney) down island, with Stewart noting it was “fascinating to see how these lads have improved over the last 12 months… We had two lifters with experience and two without experience, and it was really cool to see them interact with the other special olympic athletes. There was a lot of camaraderie between them.”
Stewart added when it came time to compete, all four of his athletes broke their personal best records at the events (squat, benchpress and deadlift), with Bee also earning top overall lifter at the competition.
“They’re really good kids,” said Engel, noting the group behaved amazingly on the trip. “They don’t push us, they stayed in their room and didn’t sneak out.”
Stewart stated they were also able to get a tour the military base (where the competition was being held), the team loved using the pool at the hotel, and the staff said they really enjoyed having them stay.
He added he wants to start having the team compete at four tournaments a year that are for special olympic athletes, and that he wants to get them into a 12 week workout cycle so they can peak before the events.
As for what else is in the future for Iron Chisel, Engel stated that he thinks Bee specifically can one day compete at the worlds, noting he’s “got all the talent in the world.”
“He can be world class,” added Stewart. “He has the mindset, and the lad is ready. John is almost there, and it is what it is.”
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