Winners of The Glenn Middleton Youth National Championships Award and $1,000 Donation
2019 - Team Minnesota
2018 - Hassle Free Barbell Club
2017 - Hassle Free Barbell Club
2016 - Team Minnesota
2015 - Team Minnesota
2014 - Team Minnesota
2013 - Hassle Free Barbell Club
2012 - Team Georgia
Glenn Middleton Youth National Championships Outstanding Team Award
Beginning in 2012, at each Youth National Championships, the most outstanding team (on the basis of combined team point scores for the men’s and women’s 16 & 17 year old division) will receive the Glenn Middleton Youth National Championships Outstanding Team Award and a cash donation of $1000 to that team to support the teams continued efforts to develop youth weightlifting. This award was made possible through the generosity of an anonymous donation made in Glenn’s name so that the work Glenn began to help the youth of American Weightlifting continue on.
About Glenn Middleton
Glenn Middleton was a major force in developing youth lifting in United States. His leadership as a Coach and administrator had a profound effect on an untold number of young people across his many decades of involvement in the sport of Weightlifting. The weightlifting and personal guidance that Glenn provided to so many young athletes is remembered as a life changing experience by many.
Warm Memories of Glenn from Joel Lackey
Just one example of an athlete’s remembrance of Glenn is a quote from Joel Lackey, many time USAW National Championships Medalist and former Pan Am team member:
“As you know, Glenn was quite an interesting and extremely intelligent man with an unusual mix of hobbies. In addition to Olympic weightlifting, he was an accomplished musician and student of early music. His collection of musical instruments, most of which were very old and ones you’d never seen or heard of before, numbered well over 100 as I recall and he could play all of them to some degree.
As for weightlifting, Glenn was an encyclopedia when it came to early strongman, feats of strength, and pre-1970s weightlifting. He himself was good lifter, but actually much stronger than his official lifts. I can remember that he had an especially strong ‘crushing’ grip and really liked those types of exercises and strength feats. Thing such as the weaver stick, pinch-grip snatches with smooth plates, phonebook tearing, and horseshoe bending were right up his alley. And he was very good at them. He introduced me to weightlifting at age 13 and remained my coach for around 10 years thereafter. I estimate that Glenn coached somewhere in the range of 80 to 120 kids over the course of 30 or so years, including many of my friends through my teenage years. We primarily trained at his house, where he had quite an assortment of interesting equipment besides your normal Olympic weightlifting bars, plates, and sort. Some of these items include setups for the harness lift, hand and thigh lift, magic circle (squat related), and others. He was heavily involved in the Junior Olympic program and was Chairman during the late 70’s or early 80’s. Glenn directed dozens of weightlifting meets in the 70’s and 80’s and coached a strong team of lifters for many years at national Junior Olympic tournaments. He was very generous with his time in coaching kids and had a positive impact on many lives, including mine.
Other fond memories of Glenn are his stories, like Paul Anderson’s practice of downing two or three gallons of milk per day and drinking beef blood by the quart. Glenn also told of times when he and his friends would have eating contests after a weightlifting meet, where they would start off with dozen egg omelets, and then move to whole chickens, and a main course of steak thereafter. However, one of the funniest was when he was 15 years old and got the idea to experiment with drinking huge amounts of water. In one day he drank five gallons of water, and in typical Glenn fashion, took body measurements and was scientific about the whole experience. He went on to confess that one of the effects was that he actually got ‘inebriated’ from it. Yes, he got drunk from drinking water.
I stayed in touch with Glenn until he died, and although physically not in good shape, his mind, and an incredibly brilliant one at that, was there until very near the end. We’ll miss “Mr. Middleton” but are very thankful for his life, friendship, and positive influence on our lives.”