Throughout 2022, Kyle Wilp could just see the progress he was making in weightlifting.

By the time he was heading into his final competition of the year on Dec. 10, the IWF Masters World Championships in Orlando, Florida, he was ranked third and needed to pull off some big numbers.

In the end, he placed second, only 2 kilos (5 pounds) lower than the winner, and hit personal bests of 186 kilos (410 pounds) in clean and jerk and 320 kilos for his total score. Plus, his 134 kilos (295 pounds) in snatch was one away from his personal best.

The 35-year-old Seymour man said he credits his coach, Wil Fleming of Bloomington, for setting him up for success throughout the year.

 

“The programming was spot on,” said Wilp, a special education teacher at Seymour High School. “I felt really good going into Orlando. On the clean and jerk, I had never even tried anything over 182. Then we had to put 186 on to get second, and it was like, ‘If you miss it, you’re not going to get second,’ so I had to make it and made it for a PR (personal record), and it felt fantastic. It was one of the better lifts I’ve done forever.”

Earlier in the year, he won his age and weight group at the PanAmerican Masters Weightlifting Championship in Puerto Rico, won the masters division and placed fourth overall at the Indiana WSO Championship in Noblesville, placed second in snatch, clean and jerk and total at the North American Open Series 1 in Columbus, Ohio, and placed ninth in the USA Weightlifting National Championships in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Summing up 2022, Wilp described it as “mind-blowing.”

“I had those goals. Sometimes, you set those goals and you wonder ‘Is it really pie in the sky? Are you really going to be able to get it?’ and then you do it and you’re like, ‘Wow! I actually overshot what my goals originally were,’” he said.

“Those numbers I hit, I didn’t think I would hit at the end of the year,” he said. “I thought it would be nice if I go to worlds and I’m just there and have a good time, but to get second, almost have a chance to win it, now my ranking in the country has gone up. I’ll finish this year ranked in the top 20 in the country regardless of age. That kind of blows my mind that I’m in the masters division but against any age group, I’m going to finish in the top 20 in the country.”

Not bad for a kid from Crothersville, he said.

More than three years ago, Wilp began working out at CrossFit Seymour and started with the light class, which doesn’t use barbells or weights. A couple of coaches convinced him to give Olympic lifting a try. That includes snatch, where a person raises a weighted bar from the floor to above his or her head in one movement, and clean and jerk, where a person brings the bar to his or her shoulder level and then above their head.

When he had an opportunity to teach the class, Wilp obtained his USA Weightlifting Level 1 certification. The instructor encouraged him to look at competing.

He ordered some plates and a barbell for his house and began lifting there, and he obtained his Level 2 certification. It was taught by one of the heads of USA Weightlifting, who said with some fine-tuning, Wilp could be a pretty good lifter.

Wilp wrote programming for himself and then realized if he really wanted to be good, he needed a coach. Enter Fleming.

In his first competition in 2021, Wilp won and qualified for the American Open Finals. There, he placed third in snatch, first in clean and jerk and second in total, qualifying for the 2022 USA Weightlifting National Championships.

The numbers he hit also got him into some meets for his age group this year, including the one in Columbus, Ohio. Since he turned 35, he moved up to the masters division.

Wilp wound up placing second to Caine Wilkes, who placed fourth in the 2020 Olympics.

“He was the only person that beat me in my age group at that one, so that was pretty neat,” he said. “He set all new masters records for American and world with that, so he’s still competing at a possible Olympic spot for the Paris Olympics. I actually got to share a warmup platform in the back with him and got to meet Pyrros Dimas, who is considered the best of all time, and had a conversation with him at that meet, so that was pretty cool.”

Next up was Wilp’s first international competition, the PanAmerican meet in June. In his age and weight group, he competed against two other Americans, a guy from Puerto Rico and a guy from Colombia.

“You get to wear a USA singlet and you’re representing your country, which is pretty cool, so that was a fun experience,” Wilp said.

The humidity in Puerto Rico was a struggle for his competitors. They competed in a gym at a local college that has no air conditioning. Since he regularly trains in his garage at home without air conditioning, Wilp said the humidity didn’t get to him.

Plus, it helped that his wife and two daughters were there for support.

“It was nice my family went with me, and I think that was something that was definitely beneficial,” he said. “Actually, my wife, Amanda, was trying to help load weights on the bar in the back because my coach couldn’t make it to that one. Usually, he would go and he would help load the weights and do my counting, so I had to do my own counting, and I would say (to Amanda), ‘Hey, put this one on,’ and she did that for me.”

Next was the hardest meet to qualify for, the national championships. That’s because there are no age groups, and you have to hit a certain total score to qualify.

Wilp learned he was the oldest competitor, so he went in knowing he wasn’t going to place high against high-caliber weightlifters. He wound up ninth out of 15 in his weight class.

“Being the oldest guy, I didn’t get last, and that’s the best in the country that were at that one,” he said. “That was a cool experience. That was just kind of fun and just seeing what happened. I had a fun day there.”

In October, the state meet was conducted for the first time in several years. That follows a formula comparing lifters with different weight classes and age groups, and Wilp was happy to come out a winner in his division and fourth overall.

“We have some strong lifters as far as the national scene in the state, which is pretty cool,” he said.

That prepared him for the world competition, where he had a strong performance.

In 2023, Wilp said he is shooting for 140 kilos in snatch, 190 in clean and jerk and 325 total.

For now, he knows he’s going to masters nationals in Pennsylvania in March, PanAmerican in Orlando in May and the Howard Cohen American Masters Weightlifting Championships in Memphis, Tennessee, in November. He’s going to see about the world competition, which is in Poland in August.

Fleming wants to see Wilp win four masters titles in 2023, which would give him a large plaque.

“He has challenged me to ‘Hey, can you go win masters nationals? Can you go win masters worlds? Can you win PanAms again? Then there’s another meet that’s in Memphis this year. Can you go win that? Can you win all four? You’ve won one of them. You got second in the other. Now, let’s see if we can go win them all,’” Wilp said. “Will it happen? I don’t know. But I didn’t think this was going to happen this year. You never know.”

He’s going to continue to train five days a week and hope it all pays off with more progression.

”Right now, I feel great. My body is so far taking it, and I’m going to push it and see how far it will take me,” he said. “The numbers have been kind of blowing my mind that they are just still climbing.”