Pan American BP Champion Marcelo Soares Passes

Marcelo “Marcelão” Soares, IPF Pan American Bench Press Champion (Costa Rica - 2008) and several times Brazil National Champion, passed away on January 21, at Praia Grande, State of Sao Paulo, Brazil. Soares died of cancer, diagnosed approximately a month before his death.

Soares was a Super Heavyweight lifter and one of the founding stones of Brazilian Powerlifting. A determined and devoted athlete for more than 15 years, Marcelo coached the team “Gladiators”, also the name of the gym he founded in Sao Paulo in the beginning of the 1990s. He moved to Praia Grande, a beach town at the State of Sao Paulo in February 2000.

Gladiators was the home of many of the best Brazilian benchers and powerlifters, among which are Wagner Alves, Dora Costa, Thiago Hadad, Evânio Rodrigues, Denise Barroso, Cristina Soares and Mariana Soares. Mariana was Marcelo and Dora`s young daughter, now 15 and also a great lifter.

Soares’ best lifts were 573 pounds (260kg) at the South American Bench Press championship in Peru, in 2007, and 551 pounds (250kg) at the Pan American Bench Press Championship in Costa Rica, in 2008.

The Brazilian powerlifting community mourns this terrible loss and will always remember Marcelo as the generous and knowledgeable athlete and coach, always ready to share his technical expertise and help other lifters, especially the novice and inexperienced. He was one big friend, with a big heart.