Drug-free effort taught him discipline at early age
By: Matt Chiappardi
EAST WINDSOR Thousands attempt to qualify. A handful compete. And one champion is crowned.
Local weight-lifter Darren Nemow successfully crossed the first two of those three thresholds. While he didn’t win the USA Powerlifting championship held last weekend in St. Louis, coming in fifth out of the six men competing in his weight class is a victory to the 12-year powerlifting veteran.
"My goal is to place in the top five," he said before the competition.
"If you can beat just one of those guys, you’re good," he added, understating the fact that he now places in the top five out of thousands of competitors nationwide and could be eligible for international competition.
In January, the five-time state champion from Twin Rivers gave national qualifying a go, and by combining a 370-pound bench press with a 551-pound squat and a 634-pound dead lift to total 1,555 pounds, he moved into the big leagues.
That’s not the only Herculean task that awaited him Saturday. USA Powerlifting is a drug-free organization. According to the competition’s bylaws, any athlete who tests positive for anabolic steroids, natural or synthetic growth hormones, diuretics or psychomotor stimulants is automatically disqualified from the event.
While the sporting world reels from doping scandals in events as far ranging as the Olympics, the Tour de France and Major League Baseball, a sport that requires raw strength, and raw strength alone, becomes much more difficult when it must be performed naturally.
"To do that without drugs is a feat," said Mr. Nemow, referring to exceeding the 1,500-pound qualifying lifts.
A competitor does not have to lift the three-quarter-ton total in one shot; the combined total needs to exceed that weight. But to put the weight into perspective, the 635-pound dead lift Mr. Nemow performed weighs more than a large grizzly bear.
"As soon as you’re done lifting, they test you," he said.
Mr. Nemow described that his urine sample was collected in open view both before and after the competition. Any participant who fails is suspended from competition for three years. Two-time failures garner a ban for life.
A graduate of Hightstown High School, the 33-year-old is a carpenter by trade, but weight lifting is his passion.
Starting at age 15, Mr. Nemow said, he was fascinated by strength and started working out with his older brother. He called himself a kid who had the potential to get into trouble, who back then would spend too much time goofing off, skipping school and getting poor grades. Weight lifting, he said, turned all that around.
"It’s kept me in great shape and taught me a life of discipline," he said.
Mr. Nemow said he believes getting involved in something as challenging as competitive weight lifting is one of the best things a teenager can do.
"When I see kids at the gym, I tell them not to be pressured," he said, referring to influences that could prompt teens into antisocial behavior.
Mr. Nemow said he hopes that organizations like USA Powerlifting can act as an example of what athletes can accomplish without the aid of synthetic chemicals.
Instead of drugs, Mr. Nemow follows a strict training regimen that has him working out at Pro Fitness Gym in the Twin Rivers Shopping Center four days a week and up to three hours a day. He eats a strict diet of exclusively lean meat, fruits and vegetables six days a week, and says he splurges on something like ice cream once a week.
That discipline played a role in getting him to St. Louis, but he found the competition a lot tougher than at the state level. One of his bench press attempts was thrown out because his arms were uneven, and another was not counted because he moved one of his feet, he said.
"I normally don’t get called on things like that in New Jersey," he said.
The lifter who did place first came as no surprise to Mr. Nemow. That was five-time U.S. champion David Ricks. But Mr. Nemow was able to lift three of his personal-best weights, and that alone made him happy.
Now that he has finished his meet in St. Louis, he could be eligible for the world powerlifting championship at the 2009 World Games, a competition for alternative sports patronized by the International Olympic Committee, in Taiwan. There are at least eight international federations that competitively govern powerlifting, and that may be one of the reasons it has yet to be selected by the IOC for inclusion in the Olympics. Classical weight lifting is sanctioned in the Summer Games.
Powerlifting has relatively modern roots, originating in western Europe in the 1960s as an alternative to classical weight lifting popular in the former Communist bloc, China, Iran and Turkey. Unlike classical weight lifting, which employs one barbell lifted from the floor to above the lifter’s head, powerlifting uses shorter and more varied movements, and a number of different starting positions. Some weight-lifting aficionados claim that powerlifting should not be given first-class status because the rules differ greatly among the many sanctioning bodies, and some federations require special equipment like one-piece spandex suits.
Mr. Nemow is not discouraged by such thought, and is looking forward to the next competition. His total 1,555 lifted in St. Louis automatically qualifies him for next year’s event in Kilene, Texas. But before that he’s heading to the American Open Competition in Scranton, Pa., in December.