Raising the Bar

Bob Cortes says he loves the challenge.

When he participates in the International Powerlifting Federation masters championships in Sun City, South Africa, beginning Tuesday, Cortes will be competing against “the young guys.”

That’s what Cortes calls his competitors who are in their 50s.

And “they call him Grandpa or The Old Man,” said his teenage daughter, Amanda, laughing.

Cortes is 69.

He also is “the premier powerlifter over 60 in the U.S., and certainly one of the best over 60 in the world,” said Alex Galant of Denver, the coach for the IPF’s U.S. team. “It’s unusual to have men in their 60s be competitive in this group, but he has a real shot to win a championship.”

Unlike some competitions with numerous age divisions, the IPF event has only one category for lifters 50 and older in each of its 11 men’s weight classifications.

In 35 years of competition, Cortes has won more championships than he can keep track of. Trophies and plaques are nearly everywhere you look in the living room of his home in Garden Grove.

But don’t think Cortes is just an exceptional powerlifter for his age. He’s good for any age. And especially for someone 5 feet 5, 148 pounds.

He said his best recent performances include lifts of 400 pounds in the squat, 275 pounds in the bench press and 500 pounds in the dead lift. And those aren’t much different from the marks he had when he won his first senior national championship at 43.

“He’s an amazing physical specimen,” Galant said. “It’s remarkable that he’s been able to keep up the level of fitness he has.”

Cortes smiles at the compliments.

“People always say that I don’t look my age, and I probably don’t,” he said. “I guess that’s what taking care of yourself, training and watching your diet can do for you.”

Cortes says he eats mainly fish, turkey and salads. “But it’s getting harder for me to watch my diet,” he said, smiling.

His love of competition keeps him going. “I guess I have the willpower for this sport,” he said.

It all began 40 years ago when Cortes and his brother, Frank, decided to go to a Detroit YMCA to work out. “We both felt like we needed to do something to stay in shape,” Cortes said.

Not long afterward, Cortes met Norbert Schemansky, a former Olympic wrestler who befriended him and helped him with his technique. “He’s really the guy who taught me how to do it,” Cortes said. “I did Olympic-style lifting for several years, then I went to powerlifting.”

Olympic-style lifting involves two moves, the snatch and the clean and jerk, that put a premium on quickness as well as strength. In Olympic lifting, unlike powerlifting, the bar must finish above the head.

Cortes worked at General Motors for 32 years, performing various jobs, and retired with a full pension at 49.

“Even if I had worked 16 hours on double-shifts some days, I always stopped in at the gym and worked out, and I would feel better,” he said.

Through most of that time, he competed regularly. “There were times in the ‘60s and ‘70s I couldn’t afford to go to world championships, even though I had won nationals,” Cortes said. “But then my company sponsored me for some flights, and that helped.”

There is no prize money in powerlifting. “My expenses have been out of my own pocket most of the time,” Cortes said.

Cortes moved to California after retiring from General Motors. But he was back working again less than a year later, this time for a door manufacturing company. He still works at least a couple of days a week as a part-time handyman.

“After I first retired, I fished a lot with a friend of mine for a while, but I got really bored and had to get back to work,” he said. “I have to be doing something.”

Cortes had four children with his first wife. They divorced before he moved to California. He remarried and has one child, Amanda, with his second wife.

Cortes said he has been injury-free through his lifting career. “I’ve been lucky,” he said. “You have to worry about your knees especially because of the strain there.”

Cortes did have one physical setback--bypass surgery for blocked arteries in 1990. He said he never used any performance-enhancing drugs.

“I’ve been clean all my life,” he said. “In the old days, I knew that some of the guys I was against were using steroids, but they aren’t lifting now. People would say there were drugs that would make you stronger. I just told them to forget it, that I had too much to lose. I think I showed that if you train hard and stay clean, you can still go a long way in the sport. I want to set a good example for young kids.”

Cortes is widely respected in the powerlifting community.

“Some lifters might do well for a period of time, but they have short careers,” said powerlifter Martin Drake of Corona. “However, Bob has been consistently at the top for a long time.”

And Cortes says he has no plans to retire from competition.

“I might not compete as much later on as I do now, but I won’t ever stop training,” he said. “I always tell my friends that when I die, it’s probably going to be under a bar.”