Blind Fury

Here’s another reason to make you feel bad about your incessant whining and ever-expanding gut: blind powerlifting. That’s right, fat-ass. The United States Association of Blind Athletes (USABA) is holding its sixth IBSA Blind Powerlifting World Championships in downtown Miami’s Hyatt Regency Hotel. More than 130 visually impaired athletes from 15 nations are expected to compete. The Miami Lighthouse for the Blind and Adidas are sponsoring the event. Twelve competitors, including Florida natives Kris Scheppe and Nick Sinardi, will represent Team USA.

Powerlifting features three disciplines: squat, bench, and deadlift. Each athlete gets three attempts on each, with the best of each added to determine the competitor’s total points. The contest’s equipment will include four ER combo squat/bench-press racks from Denmark and four sets of calibrated Ivanko bars/weights. In layman’s terms, this means these dudes will be lifting stuff with a collective weight roughly the equivalent of the population of both an impoverished nation and the city of Hialeah. Admission is five dollars. Call 305-818-7188, or visit www.usaba.org, www.usaplnationals.com/ibsa, or www.miamilighthouse.org for more information.
Fri., July 4, 2008