Vernon Patao Looks to Grow Hawaii Weightlifting After 31 Years as a Firefighter
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by Preston Fekkes, Communications Lead
COLORADO SPRINGS – Vernon Patao, two-time Olympian, recently retired from a 31-year career as a firefighter on Maui. His gym, HI Performance Athletics in Kahului, just sent four athletes to the 2025 USAW National Championships. In retirement, Patao plans to focus on growing the weightlifting talent in Hawaii and giving athletes the opportunity to travel and advance in the sport.
After the 1992 Barcelona and 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games, Patao retired from weightlifting for almost 20 years. Eventually, around 2014, he was asked to do a weightlifting clinic at a local gym. He ended up taking over that gym and turning it into HI Performance Athletics. Since he’s been back in the sport, he’s been a staple at national events.
“I come out to one of the Virus Series meets every year and I try to make it to the Virus Finals every other year, but the National Championships is the biggest meet for me,” Patao said. “Besides the lifters doing well, my biggest thing is to reconnect with a lot of friends that I’ve had for close to 40 years. That's one thing I cherish and make time for is to reconnect with a lot of coaches here.”
HI Performance serves the whole community, including competitive weightlifters, athletes training for other sports, and adults looking to improve their fitness. Coach Ryan Towata started out as a remote athlete under Patao, and has since become a pillar of HI Performance.
“I had a couple of coaches, and they weren't like Vernon who takes care of every lifter,” Towata said. “I'm not the best lifter. I never qualified for a national meet, but I wanted to learn the sport. When I talked to him, it didn't matter who you were – you’re going to get the same attention. He doesn't care if you're an international lifter or just an everyday lifter wanting to do something out of your comfort zone.”
Towata has been coaching with HI Performance for several years, answering a call from God to move his family from Oahu to Maui to teach fourth grade and work with Patao in person. After school on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, Towata comes in to coach. He has seen kids come through the gym and go on to be Division I athletes in soccer, baseball, and other sports, but it all starts with being able to lift properly.
“The discipline and understanding of the movements, and just the explosiveness,” Towata said on why teaching the Olympic lifts is fundamental for an athlete’s success. “We've seen a lot of kids who come with mobility issues and whatnot. They learn how to squat and snatch properly and they're more explosive and less likely to injure themselves. After teaching all the fundamentals and putting in that core and leg strength, we tell them that when they go off to school their coaches will use them as examples in their strength rooms.”
Patao and his coaching staff have made it a tradition to give their athletes the trip of a lifetime when they qualify for the National Championships. This year, the voyage to Colorado Springs included catching an MLB game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Colorado Rockies, a golf outing, and much more.
“We try to give them the best experience because a lot of these kids don't travel at all, so when they come out here we want to take them out and experience the whole area that we're in – so all of Colorado for this trip,” Coach and athlete Tiffani Lee said. “We took the kids hiking, we'll take them to the Olympic Training Center, and just try to get more involved and see what's out there in the world.”
HI Performance had four athletes compete at the 2025 National Championships, with Lee claiming a bronze medal in the W 53 kg clean & jerk. Patao expects the number of athletes making the trip to begin to increase. After just over a decade of running HI Performance as a secondary priority, Patao is ready to go all in on producing weightlifting talent through his gym.
“Now that I’ve retired from the Maui Fire Department, I can finally focus on growing the sport of weightlifting in Hawaii,” Patao said. “I've never actually tried to grow it. As a matter of fact, I turned many people away because I was so busy with work. So, now that I finally have more time on hand and coaches set, I'm going to make a bigger push to promote the sport and maybe work on building a club and university team for our local college campus, University of Hawaii Maui. You will see bigger teams from Hawaii coming to these national meets in the near future!”
