Steve Goggins: Misunderstood Legend of Powerlifting
Some time back I was faced with the reality that Powerlifting is a very egocentric activity and that many current lifters come and go in a matter of years having only focused on THEIR lifts, THEIR training and THEIR admiration of a small number of current lifting champions propped up by social media during a miniscule window of time. I don’t blame them because we all thought we were invincible supermen with blinders on and there is even a necessary confidence that borders on cockiness required to lift world class poundages. I do believe, however, that lifters of the past were more studied on the greats that came before them and had a more realistic view of how they stood amongst the decades of leviathans that preceded them and whose shoes they were attempting to fill.
I’m going to focus this writing on Steve Goggins. Steve is someone that I feel is misunderstood by some of the lifters of today. You see, there is no argument that Steve stands at the very, very top of powerlifting legends. In fact, Steve Goggins and Ed Coan are often thought of as two of the greatest lifters to ever compete in the 60-year history of the organized sport of powerlifting. By most metrics this is a very accurate claim. Maybe in 20 years we’ll look back and add John Haack and some of the modern champions to this list but most of these guys are a flash in the pan and come and go in ten years or less without giving everything they have to the sport. Steve Goggins has given everything.
I often wonder if people are placed in your life for a reason. Steve has been intermingled in my own powerlifting journey for most of my life. It’s not a story of him taking me under his wing and mentoring me because that never happened. He has never coached me or helped me with a program; I accomplished that on my own. We were training partners for a time, and we are friends and I know who Steve Goggins really is.
Steve popped up in my life when I was 15 and he came to my high school in Marietta, GA as a recruiter for the U.S. Army. I don’t remember hearing much about the Army, but I sure do recall seeing a thickly built, impressively powerful looking guy talking about a sport called powerlifting. Steve had a big chest and traps, and he just had that confident look that made me think “I want to be like him”. I didn’t memorize his name that day, but my first issue of Powerlifting USA had a write up about the 1989 U.S. Armed Forces Championships and I was awestruck when I saw a picture of that familiar face hauling up a winning 804 deadlift at 220. I told my parents and my friends that this was the guy that came to my school. None of them seemed impressed but I didn’t care; Steve Goggins had inspired me, and I was hooked on powerlifting!
Five years passed and I was lifting in my first APF Senior Nationals. It was 1995 in Dallas, TX. I walked around the hotel, and it was like walking into the pages of the magazine. It was a “who’s who” of the greatest powerlifters of that time. When Sunday rolled around, and I walked into the warm-up room to loosen up I caught a glimpse of the man himself; Steve was sitting down lathering up with his signature Cramers Atomic Balm liniment. I’m not one to be star struck and I walked over to talk to him. To my pleasant surprise he was very genuine and encouraging to me. Some of the big lifters from my local gym, Coffee’s in Marietta, GA, weren’t overly welcoming to young lifters but here was this champion who held the all-time squat record at 242 with a 968 and could beat his closest competitor by a few hundred pounds and he talked to me as a peer. By the way, he did increase that squat record to 975 that day and it was exciting to see him in action and lift with him in the same flight.
Another 5 years passed until I talked to Steve again. It was 2000 and Kieran Kidder had begun the original World Powerlifting Organization (WPO) with the dream of making powerlifters paid professional athletes. I was there to lift and, to my great surprise, so was Steve. We had a brief conversation because he was moving from Dallas, TX to Atlanta to be closer to his mother in Virginia. He asked if I would like to train with him and, though I’m sure I played it cool, I was beyond elated that I was going to be able to train with the very man that inspired me and introduced me to powerlifting.
Steve did move to Atlanta, and I opened North Georgia Barbell. NGBB boasted many champions over the next decade including Phil Harrington, Travis Mash, Sam Byrd, Kara Bohigian, Matt Zweng, Mike Lanier, Clay Castile, Scott Albano, Glenn Baggett and tons of others but Steve Goggins had arguably his greatest run while at NGBB. He won over $40,000 in the WPO and he became the first man in human history to surpass the 1100 squat barrier with 1102 @ 264 pounds bodyweight. He won the Super Open Championship belt over guys that outweighed him by 80+ pounds. He was simply untouchable. I was very proud when Steve was on the cover of Powerlifting USA magazine wearing his NGBB t-shirt while squatting the world record!
As you can see, Steve has been instrumental in my life. I was always aware of his achievements, but I was primarily focused on my own National victories and lifting career. Nonetheless, fate continued to bring us together and I am a better person because of it.
The greatness of Steve Goggins is without question. You can check out his rich competition history on www.openpowerlifting.org to witness that. A few of my favorite accolades that I believe place him as powerlifting royalty include a 30-year reign at the top of the sport from the earliest cotton Marathon lifting suits and ace bandage Knee wraps to single ply polyester Inzer Z-suits to multi-ply professional powerlifting and even into the raw lifting movement at 50 years old. He’s done it all. During these three decades Steve competed in and won the great YMCA Nationals, the Budweiser Hawaii Record Breakers Invitational, the USPF Seniors, the IPF Worlds, the APF Seniors, the WPC Worlds, the WPO Super Open Finals and even competed in the USAPL. This feat has only been done by Ed Coan and the late Joe Ladnier. Steve also held the All-Time heaviest squat regardless of bodyweight for a total of 7 years (1032 in 1996 and 1102 in 2003) and also took the all-time highest squat at 242 from 968 to 975 to 1003 to 1032 and eventually to 1041; there was no more dominant lifter at 242.
So why is Steve misunderstood. As a lifter, no matter what he accomplished it always seemed that he didn’t get the coverage that would have been expected. He wasn’t flamboyant or self-aggrandizing and, though he was quite thickly muscled, he didn’t have a physique like his former training partner and friend Ronnie Coleman. Everyone pitted him against Ed Coan because they lifted at the same time in history. Ed chose the USPF/IPF and Steve followed the money to the WPO. It seems that there were a lot of writers that liked to build up Coan and bring down Steve even when he overtook Coan with the #1 ranking in PL USA at 242.
Steve has given his life to powerlifting. It is what he knows and what he loves. About 15 years ago he started his Goggins Force team in an effort to give back to lifters and build a training clientele of champions. He also dove headfirst into meet promotion with the U.S.P.A. and put on as many as 8–10 meets a year in Georgia and the southeast. He even orchestrated and ran the biggest nationals ever (?) in the U.S. with 800+ lifters in 2022 with his Drug Tested Nationals in Atlanta, GA. He became one of the nation’s top meet promoters. In 2023, Steve opened his dream gym and competition facility called The Georgia Strength Compound that can be converted from a fully functional powerlifting gym to a meet venue in 1 hour. I would say Steve’s contributions after his lifting career are nearly as impressive as his lifting.
Steve expects people to do as they say. It they offer to help; he expects them to help. If they say they will show up at a certain time he expects them to show up. He can be particular about certain things that he likes a certain way and he’s not one to sugarcoat anything. He speaks what’s on his mind and people get their feelings hurt. The very traits that made him a champion powerlifter often tarnish his reputation in the “real world”. Big personalities can be magnetizing, and they can be very off-putting depending on who you are interacting with and about what. Steve can be difficult at times, and I’ve experienced this. Some of the younger lifters can’t deal with it and they run to social media to drag him through the mud. This is not fair to Steve because deep inside he cares more about the lifters and the sport of powerlifting than anyone you’ll ever meet.
Please understand that Steve Goggins is a living legend. Father time is undefeated so he spends more time on his mountain bike than he does hoisting the big iron these days and he’s had a few joint replacements, but he is a great man, and he has meant a lot to me continuously throughout my life. His presence in this sport and later his guidance and motivation as my training partner mean more to me than I can ever express in words.