Father Gave Champion a Powerful Lift

The inspiration Sylvester Anderson needed to become a world champion power lifter came from his father in a rather unusual way.

A small farm in Mississippi was Willie Anderson’s life. He worked countless hours to provide his family with the basics. But Willie didn’t quite know what to make of his son, Sylvester. He used to tell him he couldn’t figure whom he took after because he didn’t seem to have the same gumption as the rest of the Andersons.

So Willie never expected much of Sylvester, and he told him so.

“He said ‘Son, I just don’t know what you’re going to turn out to be,’ ” Anderson recalls. “He used to think I was way too easy-going because I wouldn’t fight at school. Kids would take my pencils, and I wouldn’t fight back. I guess I wanted to show him maybe he was wrong.”

Maybe that’s why Sylvester Anderson, now a 31-year-old Marine staff sergeant stationed at Camp Pendleton, never skips his workouts. And maybe that’s why, if you ask around the base for the name of the strongest man at Camp Pendleton, the name you hear is his.

Anderson is the chief cook at a mess hall. His dedication to power lifting includes workouts after a hard day at the mess hall.

Its been nearly three years since Anderson won the GoLd Medal in the 198-pound division at the world power-lifting championships in Norway.

Anderson credits his father with providing the drive that brought him that medal. His father’s main focus in life was making sure his four daughters and six sons did a little better and had a little easier time in life than he did. He got by with a fourth-grade education and an awful lot of perspiration, but he instilled in his children the importance of finishing high school.

“I really think that, if my father hadn’t been strict, there’s no way I could have come into the Marine Corps and done as well as I have done in the sport of power lifting,” Anderson says. “The bottom line is where you were brought up, how you were brought up.”

His father died earlier this year, but Anderson is satisfied that his father respected his accomplishments. He showed his father the trophies, the magazine articles and the Gold Medal. His father saw the son that he thought might not do anything with his life gradually become the most productive member of the family.

“I don’t have any regrets,” Anderson said, “because we became real close.”

Anderson may have been lackadaisical during his school days, but now he is driven by pride in what he does, both in his duty with Marines and his efforts in the sport weightlifting.

Anderson said he himself never would have dreamed he would be able to lift the weight he does now. He now squat presses 810 pounds, bench presses 460 pounds and dead lifts 771 pounds.

The only thing that sometimes mars Anderson’s success in the sport is misplaced jealousy. He may be standing in a line someplace when someone will say, ‘I could be as muscular as you if I took steroids.”

When that happens, Anderson turns and walks away. The only supplement he has ever taken, he says, is a legal amino acid. But he knows there are people who won’t believe that.

“It’s always a stereotype that if you’re a body builder or a power lifter you’re involved in some kind of drugs,” he says. “You see it on television. You read it in the paper. Sometimes I kind of smile about it because you can’t change what other people think about you.”

It’s not as if the drugs don’t exist in this sport. Anderson knows all about that. In 1987, the year he won his Gold Medal, a lifter from Belgium beat him in every category. By a lot.

Anderson suspected foul play, and he told some of his friends. He knew the lifter was strong but not that strong. His friends and training partners urged him to be satisfied with second place, continue his training and shoot for improvement the following year.

“I was really torn apart and depressed for a couple of weeks,” Anderson says. “I knew he had to be doing something.”

Then the result of contestants’ drug tests came back, and, sure enough, the winner tested positive for steroids. He was stripped of his medal, which was given to Anderson. People told him he was lucky.

“Maybe I got lucky, but I have the Gold Medal right here,” Anderson said. “On the back, it says ‘1987 world champion: Sylvester Anderson.’ ”

The athlete and Marine follows a strict routine. He’s up at 5 a.m., or as he puts it, “zero-five,” and starts work as the chief cook in a mess hall at 7 a.m.

When his shift ends at 3 p.m., he heads for the weight room.