Mike Lipari

Mike Lipari was a police officer in Baie-Comeau, a city in the Canadian province of Quebec, and dabbled in amateur wrestling before settling on weightlifting as his sport of choice. His first tournament was a junior Quebec provincial one in 1953; although he did not win, by 1958 he was good enough to be a member of the senior national team and to attend that year’s British Empire and Commonwealth Games, where he finished sixth in the light-heavyweight class. In 1959 he became the Canadian Champion in the light-heavyweight division, but Quebec boycotted the trials for that year’s Pan-American Games after the Amateur Athletic Union of Canada moved them from Quebec to Winnipeg. After the trials went poorly, however, Lipari called the head of the AAU and presented his credentials, which earned him a trip to the tournament without any further demonstration. He placed first again at the next Canadian National Championships, which doubled as the trials for the 1960 Summer Olympics. Representing Canada at the Games in the light-heavyweight division, he placed 14th in a field of 24 competitors.

Lipari had two more major stops in his international weightlifting career. In 1962 he participated in the World Championships, placing outside the medals, and in 1963 he represented Canada once more at the Pan-American Games, winning bronze in the light-heavyweight category and taking up the role of his nation’s flag-bearer. He served in the United States Army before founding the Lipari Group, a transport, moving, and storage company based in Quebec. In 2001 he helped create the Concordia-International Weightlifting Club in Montreal.