Rick Odor

I began lifting in 1968 when I was a freshman at Mathews High School in Vienna, Ohio, near Youngstown. It was after football season and we were "required" to do so. I was the only one to stick with the program and after six months, I added 30 Ibs. to my initial 125 Ib. bodyweight and could bench press 190 Ibs. at age 14. There was no real coaching and little supervision, but I still made very good progress. Lou DeMarco was my Latin teacher and near the end of my freshman year invited me to train with him at the Setterberg's garage in nearby Masury, OH. Lou was a top USA Olympic weightlifter and later placed 3rd in the 1972 Olympic Trials. I was exposed to Olympic weightlifting for the first time, as well as 1972 Olympian, Mike Karchut. Kurt Setterberg was Teenage National Champion and later on became an Olympic team member himself.
As a 14 year old who did not drive, during the summer I continued training in my basement on a 15 Ib. bar and S 1/2 inch diameter plates. Two years later in the spring of 1971 I entered my first weightlifting meet, the Steel Valley High School Championships, lifting in the 148 Ib. class. I lifted 135 Ibs. in the press, 125 Ibs. in the snatch, and 180 Ibs. in the clean and jerk.
Shortly thereafter, I was diagnosed with hyperthyroidism, was treated with radioactive iodine at the Cleveland Clinic, and got much stronger within two months. During the fall of 1971, I began training at the Warren, OH YMCA where Ray Lozinski also trained [photo below]. After an autumn ankle dislocation while on vacation and left knee injury, I came back in January 1972 to win my 165 Ib. weight class and Best Lifter at the Boy's Club of Pittsburg Novice Open with lifts of 200 press, 160 snatch and 230 clean and jerk. I tore my lateral meniscus cleaning 245 Ibs. Such were the consequences of not being coached and wrapping my knees much too tightly (I had had right knee reconstruction surgery at age 10 after a tandem bicycle accident).
With this knee injury, I had a major set back in my weightlifting career. I could still do the powerlifting movements, and competed in the 1972 Steel Valley High School Powerlifting Championships. They had changed from an Olympic weightlifting to a powerlifting and bodybuilding that year. Fortunately, I bombed out in the bench press and avoided risking further knee injury squatting. I placed 3rd in the bodybuilding competition late that night.
In August I moved to Chicago for college and trained at the Lawson YMCA which had old Olympic bars and steel weights. With bad knees, I basically bench pressed and did general weight conditioning.

When I transferred to The Ohio State University in 1974, I was pleased to find the OSU Weightlifting Club in the Ohio Stadium. There trained three Olympic weightlifters, including Mickey Press, a national level competitor. I trained there until the university closed the club and confiscated our equipment in 1985. I had been Weightlifting USA Club Coach and Faculty Advisor for the OSU Weightlifting Club during the early 1980's.
It was then I decided to retire from lifting, as I had not made the 1984 Olympic team and decided to spend 100-plus hour weeks for the next year completing my doctoral dissertation and gaining clinical experience in the mental health field. My best competition lifts were 264 Ibs. in the snatch and 363 Ibs. in the clean and jerk. The highest level title I won was 1982 YMCA National Champion.

I trained at World Gym East in Columbus from 1990 to 1999. In 1997 began actively competing again, mostly in Masters competitions. From 1999 to the present I have trained at Columbus Weightlifting Club where, for the first time in my life, I received consistent coaching for my technique. This has been most helpful. Since 1997 I have received ten medals in national and international Masters competitions.
I now train three times per week. I also do a set of sit-ups and pulldowns each morning in the gym in my home. I use a training program written by the Soviet coaches for the Norwegian team in the 1970's. I use three months of it prior to competitions and adapt it as needed. I do some 60 minutes general weight training to warm up and then squat first to warm up my knees. I typically squat three times per week. My program calls for one heavy snatch and a separate heavy squat day each week, with pulls and push presses on various days. The load is fairly heavy until several weeks before competition, at which time the single lifts markedly increase in weight and the total load is reduced by reducing assistance exercises. I take it very light the week before the meet.
Beyond national competitions, I have competed in the last five World Masters Weightlifting Championships and four Pan American Masters Championships where I have won one Bronze, one Silver, and two Gold medals. I have competed in the Disney Wide World of Sports Arena in Orlando, FL, and in Greece, Australia, and Austria for world competitions. I have competed in Canada, Puerto Rico, El Salvador as well as the United States for Pan American competitions.
I compete in Olympic weightlifting rather than powerlifting and bodybuilding for the following reasons: before Olympic weightlifting discontinued the Press in 1972,1 was very good at it. I have always been poor in the bench press. I quickly and smartly decided that I did not have the genetics to be an international class bodybuilder. Also, I find the Olympic lifts always challenging, even after 36 years. I found fulltime bodybuilding very boring. For some reason, I have never gotten "that rush" by powerlifting either. I stick with Olympic lifting despite the injuries, in part, because I do not know if I would continue to workout should I no longer do "the lifts." It is the quickness and complexity of the Olympic lifts I find so challenging and rewarding. At top international levels Olympic weightlifters train heavily two and three times daily six days per week. I have not heard of powerlifters training that frequently. Other than training schedule, I find weightlifting and powerlifting to be quite similar in aspects of discipline. Whereas form is very important in at top levels of both sports, powerlifting focuses more on strength training and weightlifting on technique, speed and flexibility. Weightlifters must allow more for nervous system recovery, beyond somatic recovery. Both sports require tremendous ability and discipline at top levels and I have tremendous respect for top athletes in both sports.
Weightlifting training helps to balance the emotionally and spiritually draining aspects of my 50 to 60 hour weeks of providing psychotherapy to patients in my private practice clinic as a Psychologist. Weightlifting training and competition have provided much understanding regarding how things work in our world. As I learned in graduate school over two decades ago "all things are connected" if one investigates sufficiently. For example, there are similar principles regarding goal-setting after an athlete's competition or injury and treatment planning for a patient's recovery from an emotional disorder. The successes I have had in weightlifting competition generalize to having hope for a patient's recovery and "knowing" the degree of improvement that is possible despite current information to the contrary.
Weightlifting competition started out for me as a means to "prove" myself in the social context. As I have progressed into middle age (I turned 50 in 2004) my sport has taken on more of spiritual meaning: a period of separation from the "normal" world while in final preparation for competition (through training, diet, and mental focus), submitting myself to the rules of competition (respect for the sport and it's traditions and the authority of the referees), and period struggle alongside the other competitors with an opportunity to prove myself. If I prove myself in competition through success, a certain sense of "transcendence" is experienced and I am able to return to the "normal" community being energized to be more productive in my work and family.
As 2004,1 have 26 years post-graduate degree experience in the mental health field. After receiving a PhD from The Ohio State University in 1986,1 have been licensed as a psychologist since 1988 and have been in private practice in Reynoldsburg, Ohio providing psychotherapy and sport psychology services to adolescents and adults since 1989.
Inquiries for clinical services may be made by telephone at 614-863-4119 or e-mail I am also Senior Consultant with The Global Consulting Partnership, providing executive coaching, pre-promotion assessment to corporations and succession planning in family and closely held businesses.