Recently, a Germantown Hills man put his construction business on hold so he could build his body.
Mike Bridges has been called one of the top-3 power lifters in the history of the sport. But he'll probably never compete in the Olympics.
To the men he competes against he's a living legend.
"There are people who come up to me and say I read about you 30 years ago and you're still doing this. You're the last one standing," said Bridges.
More like the last one lifting. About 10 years ago, Mike Bridges lifted himself out of an easy chair and ventured back into the gym. There, he rediscovered his competitive fire. Older, and wiser, than when he'd retired from power lifting after winning his 7th world championship at age 33, Bridges began to rebuild himself.
"Not only am I as strong as I was in my 20's, but I'm actually stronger in some events than I was then. And at this age I think it's really incredible that I can still do this."
And he's not the only one.
Some of the athletes Bridges out-lifts are half his age. At 53 years old, Mike appears to be stronger than Father Time. Last August, he won 4 gold medals at the Pan Am Games lifting in the open division. His squat of 804 pounds for Team USA was a world record in his weight class, even if it wasn't the weight class he had trained for.
"They came to me and said they wanted to do a weight class switch," Bridges said. "They wanted to put a weaker guy in at 198, they thought he could win there. I was qualified for 198 and I had not competed in the 220. They said if you do that, and you both win, that will secure Team USA the number-one spot. I agreed to switch, we went up and I won the title at 220. And our 198 guy won his title."
Mike's won 14 world championships during his career, 5 of those in the last 7 years alone. But he does have one regret, he'll probably never get to compete in the Olympics. You see, power lifting isn't an Olympic sport. The IOC (Interational Olympic Committee) considered adding it for the 2008 games, but ultimately voted not to.
"That was a very big letdown," admitted Bridges, "because the reason I came back to compete was the mental promise to keep training because it looked like we were going. That's what I hung my hat on."
Even without fulfilling his Olympic dream, Bridges continues to add to his legend, one that began 3 decades ago in the parking lot of a supermarket.
"We were walking in a parking lot, me and some friends of mine," recalled Bridges. "This was back in the early 1980's. And I said,'I wonder if I could pick up the rear end of that car.' So I walked over there, bent over and picked it up. It was a Honda Accord, a 4-door, and it really wasn't that heavy. I thought, wow, that's pretty cool. So, I'd just go around every once in a while and pick up the rear end of a car. Just for fun, and amaze some people. And they would look at me like I've never seen anybody do that before."
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