The Big money meet: a sanctioned meet and fundraiser

Compete - Raise Money - give back to Your WEIGHTLIFTING COMMUNITY

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We had an idea about 9 months ago: why not create a sanctioned weightlifting meet with the purpose of giving money back to the weightlifting community and our nonprofit? Our sister company, Mobility-Doc, is the sports medicine practice for many of the country’s best weightlifters. Many of these weightlifters train full-time for their sport and pretty much all of them will never make any money doing so. It’s true that USAW has created an improved stipend system. But it’s also true that it’s difficult to live off of less than $20,000 per year. Especially when you’re in your mid-twenties, and you’re putting off full-time work for the chance to make an olympic team.

I, John, low-key don’t like competitions that offer money in an attempt to get signups. Confusing since we’re hosting a meet that offers prize money, right? Let me explain. I feel that mixing prize money into local meets can make the meet less fun for the 95% of lifters who simply just want to be able to compete in a comfortable environment. We felt that the best way to offer money at a local meet for us was to make it all about the good we we’re doing with the money from the meet. Full transparency. A friend mentioned to me recently that we should’ve waited longer before mentioning that Juliana Riotto was competing at our meet because that would deter other women from competing to win the money. But that’s the point. We want people like Jules - hi Jules - to have the opportunity to win money. We want others to compete in this meet, in part to see higher level athletes compete, and also because they know that their registration cost goes directly to the prize money for people like Jules. Full transparency.

In three weeks we will host our first annual Big Money Meet. We originally advertised that 50% of the money would go to the lifters and 50% would go to our nonprofit. But because this is the first time we’re hosting this meet, we decided to guarantee $2000 dollars going towards the top 6 lifters, even if only 30 people sign up. The top 3 men and women will each be awarded $500, $300, or $200, for 1st, 2nd, or 3rd overall. Our 501c3 nonprofit will probably not make any money from this first meet. But thats fine. Really. Because the entire purpose of this meet is to give back to our community. The added bonus would be some more signups to benefit our nonprofit. Our long term goal is to grow this to an even more significant pay out for the athletes through a larger attendance, donations, and sponsorships.

If you would like to take part in our one day sanctioned USAW meet, or if you know someone who might, please let them about the Big Money Meet. We will be selling shirts, offering a 50/50 raffle, and cooking awesome all-day breakfast foods to raise some more money. There will be 100 chairs for the spectators, so even if you don’t plan on competing, just come and be a part of a good thing.

Info about the big money meet