Lifters Appeal to ADAU to Support RUM

The 2010 Raw Unity Meet featured two ADAU lifters, Gleb Epelbaum and Jackson Lee. In the lead up to the meet, federation officials and members questioned their decision to compete in an untested event.

Now, Epelbaum and Lee appeal to the federation, and its lifters, to use next year's event to showcase its talent. They argue that the ADAU's position on testing can be maintained while supporting an untested event. They cite the fact that most of the lifter who competed represented tested federations and that the USAPL even tested most of its lifters at the meet.

Lee:

If a conversation were to break out about the best or most prolific natural powerlifter of all time… an your pick was David Ricks…most knowledgeable lifters would say “Good choice”. If the conversation shifted to the brightest young natural powerlifter…and your choice was Mike Tushscherer…most knowledgeable lifters would again say “Good choice”. Both of these men as well as 12 or 13 time national champion Sioux Hartwig were scheduled to compete at this weekends unsanctioned, non-drug tested RAW UNITY MEET .

Flash forward to met day, this past Saturday at the RAW UNITY MEET. I began to observe a familiar site. Drug testing kits being taken out of the cases. A strange sight at a non-tested meet. As each of the before mentioned irongame stars, and many other USAPL members filed into the Jackson Springs Community Center, they were all led into the bathrooms and given out-of-meet drug test. As I watched, I thought, man that’s a good idea.

Cathy Marksteiner , head of the USAPL out-of-meet drug testing, was staying at the same hotel as I was. We had several conversations on the shuttle to and from the meet and again at a near by restaurant. She expressed that because the USAPL had so many high profile athletes competing at the RUM, that testing it’s athletes out-of-meet was the only way to preserve the integrity of the athlete and thus the organization as well.

I’m not sure if this type procedure would have been a determining factor for any other ADAU lifters who may have wanted to compete, but it’s something to consider. Assuming that they would have hit at least their current PR’s, Benita Steffan would have placed 2nd in the women’s 114’s, Rob Mostoller would have been 3rd in the men’s 308’s, David Blattenberger would have been 2nd in the men’s 181 bench press only and Brad Leonard would have been 4th in the men’s 242 bench only.

All of this could have been accomplished and we could have still kept our drug free integrity intact.

Just an observation about the RAW UNITY MEET and any future participation by ADAU members.

Epelbaum:

A lot of people at the meet would ask me what federation I was lifting with. When I would tell them, most of them responded "never heard of ADAU." Hopefully after this weekend more people know about us. If more people from ADAU show up at these types of venues, our federation will receive more publicity and visibility that it so desperately needs.

Also, despite the fact that there was no drug testing at this event, a large portion of lifters came from drug-tested federations (and, in case of the USAPL lifters, were OMTed on the spot). You can look at the results and see how all the lifters from different federations stacked up and draw your own conclusions, but to me (and I suspect quite a few others) it sends a fairly clear message of how well one can do while lifting in a tested federation against those who are not. So, in a way, Eric's decision not to test and take the "run what you brung" approach did more to show off the strength of drug-tested athletes than anything else. A 50-year old drug-tested master lifter breaking an all-time non-tested record for his weightclass should, in my humble opinion, encourage more lifters to take the drug-free route in this sport.

All in all, I really wish for more representatives from our organization to step out of their comfort zones and participate in this event in the future. I have never been more proud to be outlifted than I was at this meet. In 2009, four 181-lbers in the country totaled over 1500 lbs raw. This past Saturday, there were seven. In one day! We were going into deadlifts with five or six lifters having 2.5 lbs separating their subtotals. THAT is competition. Yet everyone, EVERYONE was nothing but encouraging of each other, cheering each other on, being truly supportive. I already mentioned Mike Lane, a fellow 181er giving me a liftoff on my third bench after I missed my second one. You better believe that I was screaming louder than anyone else for him as he was trying to pull 700 lbs on his last deadlift. And I was fully aware that if he made it, he would place ahead of me. Oh yeah, vast majority of the aforementioned 181-lbers came from tested federations.

In case you couldn't tell from my post, I thoroughly enjoyed my experience at the Raw Unity Meet. Eric did an unbelievable job of putting it together, running it, not to mention lifting on Saturday. I will be back next year, hopefully stronger (the competition will certainly be). I hope other people from ADAU will join me there. This will go a long way in putting our organization out there and, I sincerely hope, helping us grow.

ADAU forum discussion.