Mike Gattone has served as the Senior Director of Sport Performance for USA Weightlifting since 2018. Previously, he was the High Performance and Coaching Education Director for USAW from 2009-10 before rejoining the company in 2017 as the Assistant Technical Director to Pyrros Dimas. Gattone has been involved in the sport of weightlifting since 1980. He brought several national competitions to Great Plains Sports Science and Training Center in Peoria, Ill., including the 1991 Junior National Championships, 1992 Olympic Trials, and 1993 Senior National Championships. Gattone’s coaching resumé notably includes being the personal coach to Sydney 2000 Olympic gold medalist Tara Nott, the first woman to ever win weightlifting gold for the United States. Gattone also served as the competition director for the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games, and has held positions with the Chicago Bulls, Gatorade, and United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee.
Jackie Black is currently the director of a 6-12th grade online public school called Pinnacle Learning Academy through Hope Online and owns Pinnacle Weightlifting and Sports Performance Colorado Springs. Black was a six-time weightlifting national champion, 2005 Pan American champion, and placed 11th at the 2006 World Championships despite a ruptured quad tendon. She found the sport as a strength and conditioning coach at Northwestern University in 1998. Prior to weightlifting, Black was an Academic All-American gymnast at University of Wisconsin-La Crosse and competed on the varsity men’s wrestling team. After college, she won a silver medal at the 1996 World Wrestling Championships as a member of the USA Women’s National Team. She holds a bachelor’s degree in both Exercise Science and Community Health Education from the UW-La Crosse and a master’s degree in Biology - Exercise Physiology from the University of Colorado-Colorado Springs.
Pyrros Dimas serves as USAW’s Technical Director, a role he’s held since 2016. Widely considered one of the greatest weightlifters of all time, Dimas is a three-time Olympic gold medalist – Barcelona 1992, Atlanta 1996, and Sydney 2000 – three-time world championships gold medalist, and set 10 world records throughout his weightlifting career. Dimas was the Greece flag bearer for the opening and closing ceremonies at Athens 2004, where he took bronze. He was named the Greek Male Athlete of the Year in 1992, 1993, 1995, and 1996. Dimas became president of the Greek Weightlifting Federation in 2008 and was elected to the Greek parliament in 2012. He has served on the International Weightlifting Federation’s Board of Directors since 2013, recently winning reelection in May 2025.
Sean Rigsby has been a national team coach for USAW since 2022, mostly working with the youth and junior teams. He co-coached Lenoir-Rhyne University to back-to-back collegiate national championships in 2021 and 2022, and the Jamaican Weightlifting Federation to their best performance at a Commonwealth Games in 2022. Over his time as a weightlifting coach, Rigsby has led numerous athletes to U.S. national teams, national medals, and to masters world championships. As an athlete, Rigsby won multiple national titles while representing Ireland and the United States, and has represented Ireland on the international stage. Rigsby’s coaching resumé also includes experience working with athletes from the NFL, MLB, and NCAA.
