Topic: News: Tim McRae starts new path after years of training

[Chris Ⓐ LeRoux]

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Tim McRae starts new path after years of training
03/01/2006

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- The Turin Games just came to an end, but just the word Olympics holds a special place in the heart of New Smyrna Beach boys weightlifting coach Tim McRae.

The Olympics were something he gave a decade of his life for. The training delayed his college degree and getting his "real" life started, but it's something the two-time Olympian wouldn't trade for anything.

"Without it I wouldn't be who I am today," said McRae, whose Barracudas open the season at 4 p.m. today against Mainland. "The word Olympics is big to me no matter which one it is. I miss it."

Seventeen years ago, McRae graduated from Spruce Creek and was splitting his time between classes at Daytona Beach Community College and working at McDonald's.

After winning back-to-back state weightlifting titles in 1987-88, McRae was approached about moving to Colorado Springs, Colo., to train at the U.S. Olympic team's national center.

"I didn't have to think. I just went," McRae said. "There are people that go to Creek, but then they stop and they move on. I didn't stop. I tried to do something else with it."

It was then that McRae began 10 years of non-stop training.

The Olympic Training Center provided his dormitory room, food and healthcare while he trained for up to eight hours a day, six days a week.

He took some part-time courses at Pikes Peak Community College and worked part time for spending money, but the training was too much like a full-time job.

During his training he found the best way to make spending money was by breaking national lifting records. At the time the National Weightlifting Federation paid $200 for every record broken, and McRae broke more than a hundred before retiring from competition in 2000.

"There's not a lot of money involved in the sport. The only time we got money was when we broke American records. During the time it seemed like every lift that I made was breaking records," McRae said. "I was in three different weight classes. I could break nine in one meet and we had three big meets in a year."

McRae performed well enough at the Olympic trials that he earned back-to-back trips to the Summer Games. In Barcelona, Spain, in 1992, he placed eighth in the 148-pound class. Four years later in Atlanta, McRae placed 12th at 154 pounds.

"At Atlanta we had a lot more competitors and a lot more competition," McRae said. "Every country in the world wanted to come to the United States."

Despite failing to medal in either Games, McRae continued to train for the 2000 Games, but he had wrist surgery before the trials and failed to make the team.

At 30 years old, he decided it was time to come home and move on with his life. But it wasn't easy, as the two-time Olympian says he "didn't have a skill besides lifting weights."

"When I came back it was real tough. It was a different life," he said. "Now I was going to school the majority of the time and working a little bit as opposed to training twice a day. When I tried to apply for jobs it was like people looked at you like you were regular.

"It was like I did all of this hard training, but when you get ready for the real world it just didn't apply for whatever job I was going for."

Longtime area weightlifing coach Richard Graham helped McRae get a scholarship at Bethune-Cookman, where he was a strength and conditioning coach while earning his degree in physical education.

McRae said he probably could have gotten a similar position sooner had he taken his education more seriously during his training days.

"I'm mad at myself a little bit because I could've had a degree earlier in my life. I took a class here and there instead of going to school full time. Out of the 10 years I was there I was only like one class from getting an associate's degree," McRae said. "At the time I didn't realize how important college was. When I first finished (training) the first thing I wanted to do was get a degree."

Last year McRae got that degree and sought out employment. Realizing the Hawks had two quality coaches and not wanting to step on anyone's shoes, he submitted an online application at Creek but got no response.

Graham and his wife, Heidi, a longtime teacher at New Smyrna Beach High, knew NSB principal Dr. Carol Kelley was looking for a physical education instructor and weightlifting coach, so Graham recommended McRae.

"Last year I didn't really have a full-time opening, so I hired him part time as a sub. I was very interested in hiring him. After seeing his resume and his recommendations I hired him right away," Kelley said. "I wasn't naive enough to think that once he was back in this area there wouldn't be some competition for his services."

McRae, who still holds lifting records at Creek, has paid immediate dividends for the Barracudas. With McRae assisting the girls program this year, NSB qualified a school-record six girls for the state tournament and placed second behind three-time champion Spruce Creek.

Many around NSB say McRae has breathed new life into the program through his actions and encouragement.

"We made him show us (what he can lift)," said NSB's Patrice Doemer, who placed third in the 154-pound class at state.

Six years removed from competitive lifting and 12 pounds heavier than his competition weight, McRae, 35, still can be quite the example. Even though he only weighs 162 pounds and stands 5-foot-4, McRae can still bench-press 350 pounds and clean-and-jerk 330.

"I've got ways of getting kid's attention. I might have a kid that tries to go and lift something and then I'll go lift it. And they're like 'wow,' " McRae said. "The kids always want me to lift, but I'm a real modest person. Even when I started at New Smyrna a lot of kids didn't know I was an Olympian.

"I'm moving on with the other part of my life. You can't do things forever. At some point in time everything comes to an end."

The Tim McRae File

AGE: 35

ALMA MATERS: Spruce Creek, Bethune-Cookman

OLYMPICS: Finished eighth in the 148-pound class in Barcelona in 1992 and 12th at 154 pounds in Atlanta in 1996.

U.S. RECORDS: McRae holds the 69-kilogram (152 pound) records for the snatch (137.5 kilos/303 pounds), clean and jerk (165.5 kilos/365 lbs.) and total (300 kilos/661 lbs.)

At the 1996 Games, McRae set three American records and held nine American records -- in the snatch, clean-and-jerk and total -- in three weight classes.

[Matt Foreman]

What a great interview.  Tim was so awe-inspiring all those years.  It looks like he ran into the same obstacles when he retired that so many full-time lifters run into.  As he said, he was almost thirty and wasn't qualified to do anything but lift weights.  That's an easy trap to fall into when you're at the top of the game and you're in your twenties, having full-time training available to you.  But Tim is a proven champion and it looks like he's fighting his way into the professional world the same way he fought his way up the ranks in weightlifting.  You can't change what a person is inside, and I'm glad to see him getting his life moving forward.

[Matt Denslinger]

Six years removed from competitive lifting and 12 pounds heavier than his competition weight, McRae, 35, still can be quite the example. Even though he only weighs 162 pounds and stands 5-foot-4, McRae can still bench-press 350 pounds and clean-and-jerk 330.

I found this part pretty funny. Good ol' Bench Press...