Raising the bar

(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-08-18 15:43

A throaty grunt echoes through the Beijing Sport University weightlifting complex as Paul Gillis hoists a 60-kg bar over his head in an effort to perfect the clean-and-jerk lift.

Almost, but not quite, says his coach, Xie Yong, who walks over to Gillis, a 55-year-old American. Gillis, attired in a red sweat-soaked body singlet, holds his final pose as Xie places a hand on his back to straighten his spine, using the other to point out where his posture can be adjusted.

Taking the advice to heart, Gillis is just relieved he is no longer practicing with bamboo sticks.

When Gillis decided to begin competitive weightlifting six months ago, he never dreamed he would be mentored by an Olympic coach.

Inspired by the success of Chinese weightlifters at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, Gillis sought a coach and was put in touch with Xie, a professor and head coach of the national weightlifting training center at Beijing Sport University. Gillis says his foray into sports was stimulated by a desire to lose his midlife mass.

"When I watched the event I saw a bunch of guys that were shaped like me, lifting weights that were not much heavier than what I was used to," Gillis says.

For Xie, who spent 12 years training the 2008 Olympic featherweight gold medalist Zhang Xiangxiang, the chance to train such a prospect was too intriguing to pass up.

Xie says he has worked with champions from other countries, but never from the United States, nor of Gillis' age.

Gillis, a Peking University accounting professor and a retired PricewaterhouseCoopers tax managing partner for the Asia-Pacific, went from crunching numbers to doing crunches, after his call to the China Weightlifting Association earlier this year.

It was the CWA that put him in touch with Xie.

Gillis says he is still amazed at his good fortune in enlisting such a prestigious coach.

"I don't know why the CWA decided to put me in contact with someone so high up, but I am lucky they did," he says.

He attributes the break partly to the fact that his case was so unique.

Within a month of making his phone call, the 6ft1 Gillis was face to face with Xie, breaking a sweat on the mats of the Beijing Sport University weightlifting complex - the same mats Zhang occupied just months before, on his way to the Olympic gold medal.

Xie and Gillis have worked side by side, developing Gillis' snatch and clean-and-jerk lifting techniques - the two lifts performed in Olympic competitions - ever since.

In early May, after four months of working with Xie, Gillis won in his age category at the Colorado State Championship at the Metropolitan State College of Denver. It was Gillis' first competition and the first time he had his weights recorded officially.

Gillis' achievement lifted him to the 11th place ranking for his age group in the USA Weightlifting rankings.

By the end of next year, Gillis hopes to be in the top five.

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