AURORA, Colo.—Chalk flies regularly at the Rocky Mountain Lifting Club, which is just how Dan and Jennifer Gaudreau like it.
In a nondescript building off Abilene Street, the couple has created a haven for competitive powerlifters, far away from the sterile environments of commercial gyms.
With music blaring and plenty of grip-aiding chalk on hands and bars, the Gaudreaus have created a niche that has helped produce world champion powerlifters—themselves included.
“Commercial gyms won’t let you put chalk on your hands and they don’t want you to make any noise; it’s like a church in some of those gyms now,” said Dan Gaudreau, 50, an eight-time Masters world champion who brought the RMLC to Aurora seven years ago. “Just lifting more weight than people are used to seeing causes some dismay. That’s why we had to open the gym.”
Gaudreau moved to Aurora in 2003 and first set up the RMLC at East Sixth and Airport Road, where it was housed until moving to its current location three years ago. While there, he met Jennifer, a powerlifter since her collegiate days at Louisiana Tech University and former manager of a 24 Hour Fitness who needed a more suitable gym for her training. They got married in 2006 and the rest is powerlifting history: they became the only husband-wife duo to win the open bench press nationals in the same year in 2008.
“If we didn’t own this gym and had to go somewhere else to train, I don’t know if we would be able to do what we do,” said Jennifer, 38, who has rebounded from giving birth to son Logan and a bout with cervical cancer to continue her outstanding career. “We would probably find a way, but it wouldn’t be as easy.”
Running the gym is a fine balance for Jennifer, a teacher at Aurora West College Prep Academy, and Dan, an electrical contractor. In between a heavy schedule of their own competitions and others they train—some out of state and some out of the country—they typically spend three nights a week at the RMLC, working out and helping others train while Logan runs around.
There are two big pushes the Gaudreaus are behind right now.
On a larger level, they are backing a continued bid to get drug-free powerlifting admitted by the International Olympic Committee.
Locally, they have focused on growing powerlifting among middle school and high schoolers. Citing the high school powerlifting emphasis of states such as Texas and Wisconsin, the Gaudreaus hope Colorado can follow suit. They’ve set up the Colorado High School Powerlifting Association and have begun working with students at places like Aurora West Prep and Rangeview High School, where Dave Gonzales—who trains at the gym before his powerlifting competitions—is the football coach.
The Gaudreaus’ youngest protege is 16-year-old Omar Valdez, one of Jennifer’s students at Aurora West Prep, who they recently took to Innsbruk, Austria, for a junior powerlifting competition.
“We’re really big believers in the grassroots,” Jennifer said. “If we can get these kids involved with powerlifting, it’s going to help them in all their other sports. If you ask Blaine, he’ll tell you powerlifting has been a big part of what he’s been able to do athletically.”
Blaine is 24-year-old Blaine Sumner, a nose tackle from the Colorado School of Mines who set a new NFL combine record with 52 repetitions of 225 pounds in the bench press in March after years of working with the Gaudreaus.
Sumner and his father, Preston—who is also a competitive powerlifter—have made the hour drive from Conifer four days a week to work out at the RMLC.
“There’s probably 10 gyms closer, but I don’t think twice about going to train in Aurora,” Sumner said. “Dan and Jennifer have both talked the talked and walked the walk. A lot of coaches just have degrees, but they are world champions.”
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Information from: The Aurora Sentinel,
