Disability, age don't hamper powerlifters

Anthony Dinsmore and Richard Dawson have proven that disability and age don’t matter.

Dinsmore, who 14 years ago was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis, and the 73-year-old Dawson each took first-place trophies during the Power Lifting Championships in Coeur d’Alene on Dec. 6. Both Bonners Ferry men also set state records.

“We’ve been pushing each other to do our best,” said Dawson, who for 29 years ran Bonners Ferry Boxing Team.

Dinsmore competed in bench pressing in the 47- to 53-year-old age group in the open class and as a Special Olympian because of his disability.

As a Special Olympian, he set a 295-pound record in bench pressing, breaking last year’s record of 260 pounds; Dinsmore set that record. He also broke the open class record, which was 290 pounds.

As for Dawson, he broke the record for bench pressing in the 68- to 74-year-old age group with 235 pounds. The old record was 225 pounds.

Dawson, who weighs 259 pounds, has bench-pressed a personal best of 275 pounds.

Dinsmore was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis in 1995. He has struggled with maintaining his strength and balance, and had to give up working in the woods and carpentry work.

“My mind and body are a lot slower, and I had to go to a walker,” the 47-year-old said. “It affects your strength. Every year my strength goes down a little bit.”

Dinsmore and Dawson have known each other for five or six years. They’ve been working out together for about three years.

When Dawson, a retired maintenance director for Bonners Ferry High School, first met Dinsmore, Dinsmore was in a walker.

“Working out gets my strength back,” he said. “It does help. Where I normally fall over, I have enough strength to keep myself up.”

Refusing to let himself deteriorate much more, he began going to the gym two years after he was diagnosed with the disease.

Competing drives Dinsmore to improve.

Dawson and Dinsmore work out four days a week, three hours each time. Two days are committed to free weights and the other two days to bench pressing.

“He’s awesome,” Dawson said about Dinsmore. “Everybody that works out can’t believe how strong he is. We all praise him.”

For Dinsmore, not working out isn’t an option.

“What else am I going to do,” he said. “I’m not going to sit around and be a couch potato,” he said.