LOVELAND, Ohio — A longtime Loveland pastor known for picking up litter along Lebanon Road every Friday has added a fifth world powerlifting championship to his résumé, completing a comeback that stretched back more than a decade.
Brad Olson won the title Nov. 5 at the IDFPA World Championships in Houston, totaling 1,080 pounds across three lifts while weighing just 148 pounds, according to a post from the city of Loveland. His performance included a 386-pound squat, a 253-pound bench press and a 440-pound deadlift.
The win caps a comeback that began with a serious injury in 2014 while Olson was competing with the USA World Team in South Africa, the city said. He spent the years that followed working toward a return to the sport’s top level.
Olson has competed in powerlifting since 1983, when he entered his first meet as a student at Cornell University, where he led the school’s weightlifting club. He has gone on to win eight national titles across four decades, most recently at the Masters Raw Nationals in Chicago this year, and his five world titles span from the sport’s inaugural world championship in 1988 — where he set world records in the squat, bench press, deadlift and total — to this month’s win in Houston. He has also served as an Olympic chaplain, a role he held during the 1996 Atlanta Games.
Olson and his wife, Dawn, moved to Loveland in 2016 so he could serve as pastor of Loveland United Methodist Church. After a decade leading the congregation, Olson has since been reassigned to a United Methodist church in Centerville, but the couple chose to keep their home in Loveland, which they plan to call home for good, the city said.
“His determination, perseverance and commitment are an inspiration, and Loveland is proud to call Brad one of its own,” the city said in its post.
The information contained in this story was obtained from the City of Loveland.