Topic: News: Shedding luxury, Chad Vaughn's Olympic glory starts in Florence shed

[Chris Ⓐ LeRoux]

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Shedding luxury, Olympic glory starts in a Florence shed
Vaughn preparing for Beijing by training in in-laws' Central Texas shed
By Bill Oram

FLORENCE — Chad Vaughn unlatches the door to the old shed, its paint peeling, with overgrown grass licking at the baseboards.

When the door swings open, specks of dust do-si-do in the light. Hooks hang from the ceiling where bird cages once hung, and on the back wall, a small American flag on a stick is wedged into the window frame.

Below the flag: five painted rings, perfectly round.

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Rings in sight: The shed in his in-laws' backyard where Chad Vaughn works out daily is filled with signs of his
ultimate goal, the Olympics, including this chalk box covered with the Olympic rings. Photo by Deborah Cannon.

Vaughn's wife, Jodi, painted the Olympic rings in the old shed on her parents' property in Florence one weekend last fall. Chad Vaughn was off competing in another weightlifting competition. He does as many as six a year, and the sport has taken him to places such as South America, Qatar, Thailand and Athens.

Next month, it will take him to Beijing and the 29th Summer Olympics.

It will be the second Olympics for Vaughn, originally from Konowa, Okla., who in May was one of three men to qualify in Atlanta for the team. Jodi Vaughn, an accomplished weightlifter herself, finished 11th at the Olympic trials, falling short of her Olympic dream.

The 28-year-old Chad Vaughn's compact frame bulges with muscles. His trunk-like arms don't so much hang next to his body as they rest there.

After he gets off work at the Home Depot in Georgetown — a job he maintains through the Olympic Job Opportunity Program — the red-haired Oklahoman works out in the 15-by-15-foot shed that he has transformed into a gym. The transformation didn't take much. He built a platform, hung posters from events in which he competed and went to work.

"You don't need any fancy equipment," Vaughn said. "It really comes down to a platform and weights and a squat rack."

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Practice shed: Chad Vaughn works out two to five hours a day in preparation for the Beijing Games. He's one of
three men on the U.S. Olympic weightlifting team, his second time at the Games. His wife, Jodi Vaughn, placed
11th at the women's Olympic trials and did not make the team. Photo by Deborah Cannon.

Like a catcher in baseball, Vaughn drops into a squat. He grasps the bar and rises halfway, lifting the weight to chin-level. He then quickly drops back into the squat, pushing the bar over his head. Determined and focused, he stands, his legs clearly strong despite shaking violently.

He does this dozens of times each day, often with Jodi supervising. Then they switch roles, and she lifts.

It's much easier to picture Jodi Vaughn, dark-haired and petite, as an administrative assistant — her day job — than as a weightlifter.

"I'm glad I don't look like a weightlifter," she said. "Or what people think a weightlifter should look like."

Chad Vaughn beams as his wife muscles the bar toward the ceiling. He says watching her compete was the highlight of the Olympic trials, even though she finished well out of contention for an Olympic spot.

"It's a real different kind of lifestyle," said Lue Wilhite, Jodi's mother. "You need someone who understands what you're going through."

So together they work in the shed, decades old and about as glamorous as aged flannel. In the mornings. In the evenings.

For at least two hours every day — and often closer to five — Vaughn loads a barbell with awesome amounts of weight and powers it over his head. Sometimes he does it in one motion — that's called the snatch — but with two motions — the clean and jerk — he can lift more. In fact, his 190-kilogram lift in the clean and jerk is an American record.

That's 418 pounds or roughly two baby elephants.

Vaughn started doing Olympic lifts in high school when a new football coach insisted players use them for training.

"He told me from the beginning he thought I had potential and that it was something I could go to the Olympics in," Vaughn said.

It would have been a stretch when Vaughn was born to suggest he would become an Olympian.

He was born with a club foot, a defect in which the foot is twisted in and down. He had it surgically corrected, but learned to walk in a cast. It affects his flexibility and strength in the ankle, and his right calf is noticeably skinnier and less muscular. He says he's never discussed it publicly.

"It's something that I've ignored," he said. "I've learned that my story is not that unique, because there are a lot of stories like this in the Olympics."

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Chad Vaughn works out in his in-laws' shed in Florence. Vaughn, who placed second in the U.S. weightlifting trials,
is headed to his second Olympic Games. Photo By Deborah Cannon.

Now he may be the only man in Florence capable of causing an earthquake. After snatch lifting a routing 70 kilograms, he drops his barbell and it sends a jolt through the shed; the concrete foundation of the building long ago shattered from the repetition.

The utilitarian setup in his in-laws' backyard is a stark contrast to the ritzy Olympic training facility in Colorado Springs, Colo.

"Mainly it's just sticking close to home and sticking as close to routine as possible," Vaughn said, explaining his recipe for success as he grips the edge of a table, loosening his muscles by swinging his left leg in a circular motion.

His coach, Plano-based Richard Flemming, says Vaughn's desire sets him apart.

"It's probably the non-sexy things that we don't think about," Flemming said, "like eating right and working hard and working smart."

Vaughn eats seven small meals a day, two to three hours apart. He has half of a fruit shake both before and after his daily morning workout. Another meal is a serving of beans. At night he has a piece of fish or chicken.

After finishing 17th at the Athens Games in 2004, Vaughn says he became more disciplined and focused.

"A lot of guys I run into simply don't have the drive to be special in anything," Flemming said. "For him, he's got that drive to be special."

Vaughn doesn't know that he'll be a top contender in Beijing. No American has medaled in Olympic weightlifting since 1984.

"To me, going for the gold is showing up for the Olympics and making the best effort I ever have," he said. He wants to break the American record in the clean and jerk.

After all, he said, "It's my American record, anyway."