The mystery man of weightlifting born 105 years ago
John Basil Terpak, a weightlifting legend from the United States of America, was born one hundred and five years ago on July 4th, 1912. Although he could not make it to the podium at any Olympic Games, he received many Medals on the occasion of different World Championships.
He participated at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin where he finished 5th , and at the London Olympic Games after WWII in 1948 where he missed the podium and became 4th. He won Gold at the 1937 and the 1947 World Championships while he also got awarded a Silver in 1946 and a Bronze Medal in 1938. He was National Champion eleven times, Head Coach of the American Olympic Team in 1968 and 1972 and Protocol Director for weightlifting at the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. He achieved outstanding results as a coach with his two times Olympic Champion athlete Charles Vinci. Once Bob Hoffman said it rightly, John Terpak “the mystery man of weightlifting”.
