AN O’MALLEY PARK man has broken 50 world powerlifting records, won gold medals in four international events, and hopes to break another world record.
Which is not bad going at any age, but considering Tommy Dillon is 80 years old, it’s another level of achievement.
At a recent ceremony held in Limerick, Tommy was also inducted into the Powerlifting Hall of Fame.
“I hope to have have one more record. I’ll lift in the over-80s competition when Limerick hosts the international championships next year with more than 600 lifters coming from all over the world,” Tommy told the Limerick Post.
The octogenarian strong man started training at the age of 16 and took three Mr Limerick, three Mr Muster, and two Mr Ireland bodybuilding titles before he took up powerlifting in 1976.
“Once I started lifting, I forgot all about bodybuilding and I’ve been involved ever since. I’ve coached thousands of youngsters and I always remember I learned a great lesson from my first coach, the late Pat Phelan. He made very hard training sessions very easy. It’s always easier if you’re having a bit of a laugh.”
Tommy, who founded the Southill Powerlifting Club in 1984, has won gold in world and international competitions but says that he regards his greatest sporting achievement as “the first world title I won in Canada where I won gold overall and took gold in two events and silver in another”.
The Southill club was taken over by Tommy’s good friend Shane Brodie and his wife Amanda who now run it as the Southside Barbell Club.
Tommy and Shane also founded the International Powerlifting Organisation and Tommy became the first Irish international powerlifting referee having qualified in Italy for the position.
Speaking about the Hall of Fame award, Tommy says he was “delighted and I owe so much thanks to my wife, Susana, and my family who have always supported me in all I’ve done”.
Tommy now trains for around an hour and a half four times a week and says “I still love it – I’d rather be in the gym than in the pub. And I’ve made fantastic friends in the sport all over the world. We keep in touch on the internet.”
And he’s not dropping the lifting any time soon.
“You have to train more coming up to an event like the one I’ll compete in next but you also have to give yourself a bit more recovery time between sessions at my age,” he says.
