The Joe Dube Story

As of the date this article was written (9.9.25) Joe Dube stood as the last male weightlifter from the US to win an overall World Championship in weightlifting. Joe’s victory was a true upset, fueled by his ability on the platform, but inspired in part by his loyalty to the US, and to his team member and friend, Bob Bednarski.

Lifting at the 1969 World Championships in Warsaw, Poland, Bob had been denied (at least temporarily) a World Championship title, on the eve of Joe’s competition. Bob had outlifted everyone in his bodyweight category by 7.5 kg., but the Russian delegation claimed Bob’s last attempt in the C&J had not been submitted timely, so should not count. Instead, they argued, their lifter, Jan Talts, should be awarded the gold medal in the total. A subsequent investigation proved that Bob’s choice of weight for his last attempt had been submitted on a timely basis. As a result, he was later awarded the gold medal. But as of that night, Bob was denied the championship.

Seeing what had happened to his friend and fellow American, Joe vowed revenge – and he got it. But how did he get to be a World Champion? That is the Joe Dube story.

Joseph Douglas Dube was born on Feb. 15, 1944 in Altha, Florida. In 1946, his family moved to the Jacksonville, Florida, area, where Joe still resided until the end of his life.

It was as a 13 year old that Joe had his first experience trying to lift weights. On that occasion, he managed to clean 105 pounds (48 kg.) but could not raise it overhead.

While Joe had his first tussle with the weights at 13, it was not until 1959, at the age of 15, that he began to develop a serious interest in the sport of weightlifting. That interest was triggered, as it was for so many of that era, by an encounter with Strength & Health magazine.

The particular issue that Joe had obtained recounted the story of the 1959 world weightlifting championships in Poland. It was a remarkable coincidence that Joe would read about a world championship in Poland, because 10 years later he was to have his greatest day in weightlifting competition - in that same country and at that same event. But we are getting ahead of the story.

Back in high school, Joe engaged in many sports. He played football with distinction, gaining 246 yards in a single game as a fullback. He was also outstanding in the shot put, exceeding 60 feet with the twelve pound shot. On the track, Joe was capable of a 10 second 100 yard dash.

He entered his first weightlifting competition in April of 1960. At that meet, he pressed 210 pounds, snatched 210 pounds, and lifted 250 lb. in the C&J, at a body weight of 181 pounds.

In March of 1961, he won the Florida state teenage championships at a body weight of 198 pounds, setting two teenage (today known as Junior) American records, a 250 pound snatch and an 805 pound total.

By December of that year, he had increased his bodyweight to 220 pounds and increased his total to 910 pounds, pressing 300 officially for the first time in his life.

In April of 1962, at a bodyweight of 228 pounds, he made lifts of a 320 lb. press, a 285 lb. snatch and he made a clean and jerk of 345 lb., for a 950 lb. total. The C&J and press were teenage American records. It seemed that Joe was ready to “own” the teenage heavyweight ranks in the US.

But while Joe's star was rising rapidly, so were the stars of two other teenage heavyweights of that time. Just after Joe’s record making performance, Winston Binney, a youngster from Indiana, cleaned and jerked 385 pounds, totaled 1000 pounds and became the first teenager to clean 400 pounds in official competition. Shortly thereafter, in New York, Gary Guber put together lifts of 360 pounds in the press, 315 pounds in the snatch and 400 pounds and clean jerk for a 1075 pound total.

Joe Dube was not intimidated by such unexpected competition. Rather it set him on fire. In March of 1963, Joe moved his own total up to 985 lb. By June, Dube made lifts of 355, 305 and 390, for a 1050 pound total.

In November of the same year, he pressed 380 pounds, snatched 300 pounds, and clean and jerked 390 pounds, for a 1070 pound total. A mere four weeks later, he upped his total to 1085 pounds and he pressed 389 1/2 pounds, to break Gary Gubner's recent Junior World press record.

Finally, in February of 1964, at a bodyweight of 286 pounds, Joe made real weightlifting history by pressing 400 3/4 pounds for another Jr. World record. In so doing, he became the first teenager in the world to press more than 400 pounds.

Because of illness and a freak accident, in which Joe was hit by an automobile and pushed through a plate glass window, he was sidelined for some time during the next several months.

But he slowly trained himself into top condition once again, and by November of 1966 he had recovered sufficiently to total 1100 pounds for the first time in his career.

In April of 1967, Dube moved his total up to 1165. At the Nationals later that year, he took second place. More importantly, he qualified to represent the USA in the Pan

American Games in Winnipeg, Canada, a competition in which Joe won a gold medal for the US.

Inspired by his first big win in international competition, Jacksonville’s pride trained as never before for his biggest challenge yet – a pre-Olympic competition in Mexico City, in October of 1967.

The best in the World would be there, and Joe knew it. He would be ready. At that competition, he increased his total to 1212 pounds, breaking Gary Gubner’s recent American total record and bringing home a silver medal.

His success at that competition inspired Joe even further, and by March of 1968 he made still more weightlifting history. He set his first Senior World Record – a 449 1/2 pound press.

In June of that year, Dube took second at the Nationals, an event at which the great Bob Bednarski made two World records. Bob broke Joe’s recent world record in the press and the Russian, Leonid Zhabotinsky’s, C&J record, the latter with a lift of 486 ½ pounds.

But at the Olympic Tryouts in August, Joe was to have his day. In that competition, Joe took back his World Record press with a lift of 461 3/4 pounds and made a personal record of 1267 pounds in the total. That total won the Tryouts and assured Joe of a coveted spot on the US Olympic Team.

While Joe was in top shape for the Olympics, he became ill shortly after arriving at the Olympic Village, as did most of U.S. team. They had all become victims of amoebic dysentery. In Dube’s case, it came after he merely dampened his toothbrush with Mexican water.

Despite his bout of illness, Dube was able to perform well, earning a bronze medal for himself and his country. He was the only lifter on the American team to win a medal in weightlifting at the Games that year.

It was during the 1968 Olympic Games that Leonid Zhabotinsky, basking in the glory of his 2nd consecutive Olympic victory, made the tactical mistake of stating that the Americans were “too weak to ever beat him”. His remarks infuriated Joe, who vowed to train with a vengeance for the 1969 world championships, which was to be held the following year in Poland. Joe did just that and by the time he had arrived in Poland he told his friend Dick “Smitty” Smith, quote “This is my place, I own it.” Those words proved to be fact, not brag.

And as if Joe was not already fired up, the flame burning within him was raised to a level of white heat by what had occurred the day before Joe was to compete, when Bob was temporarily denied the world title while competing in the newly created 242 pound (110 kg) class, which was contested at the World Championships for the first time that year.

Joe was positively enraged by what had been done to his American teammate and he vowed revenge the next day. According to Dick Smith, who roomed with Joe and acted as a team coach and trainer, Joe was up half the night pacing the floor and vowing to avenge what had happened to Bob, by beating the two Russian lifters who would be competing against him the next day.

But the challenge facing Joe was daunting. Not only would he have to overcome the two-time Olympic champion Leonid Zhabotinsky, but the second superheavyweight on the Russian’s team was Stanislav Batishev, who had defeated Joe in the pre-Olympic tournament in 1967.

In addition, Joe faced an improved Serge Reding, of Belgium, the man who had beaten Joe for the silver medal in the 1968 Olympics.

Although Dube expected that his toughest competition would come from Zhabotinsky, the big Russian made relatively low lifts of 187.5 kg. in the press and 162.5 kg. in the snatch. He then withdrew from the competition claiming injury. One competitor down, and two to go. And Joe was up to the task of taking on the other two.

Dube made his first two presses, including a 202.5 kg. second attempt. He missed his 3rd attempt at 207.5 kg. – but that was to prove to be his only miss of the day. Joe made a 162.5 kg. personal record in the snatch, and then clean and jerked 212.5 kg. to make a personal record in the total of 577.5 kg. That outstanding performance gave Joe the gold medal in the total. He was the World Superheavyweight Weightlifting champion at last.

It was the first time an American had earned the superheavyweight title since Paul Anderson won the Olympic Games in 1956, and the first time any American had won a world championship in weightlifting since Chuck Vinci’s victory at the 1960 Olympic Games (apart from Bob Bednarski’s performance the day before). As was mentioned earlier, it also marked the last time an American male was to win a world weightlifting championship to this day.

The following year, the great Vasili Alexseev appeared on the weightlifting stage and began his dominance of the world superheavyweight scene. At the 1970 World’s Championships, although Joe was able to equal his total from the prior year, his performance only yielded a 4th place. Joe was disappointed by his showing, but he was far from defeated.

He trained with renewed motivation and at the 1971 National Championships was the shape of his life once again. He pressed for 207.5 kg., then snatched 167.5 kg. to erase Norbert Schemansky’s long standing American Record. Then he cleaned and jerked a personal record 215 kg. In making these lifts, Joe became the first athlete in US weightlifting history to total 1300 pounds (590 kg.). Amazingly, Joe’s breakthrough record was erased moments later by fast rising Ken Patera, whose total of 592.5 kg. gave him the National title.

Undaunted, Joe trained to avenge his defeat. He planned to do this at the 1971 World Championships in Lima, Peru. Unfortunately, disaster struck Joe in Peru. He injured his back while warming up for the competition and had to withdraw. It was a truly bitter moment for Dube, but as usual, he was far from defeated.

He resumed his training as soon as he had recovered sufficiently from his injury and by January 1972 was once again the top form. Lifting in a meet in Cincinnati OH, he was prepared for an attempt at a new American record snatch of 172.5 kg.. He lifted this great weight overhead and came almost completely out of the squat when the bar started to fall behind him. Joe’s great fighting heart caused him to struggle too long with the errant weight and he injured his elbow. That injury spelled the end, at least temporarily, of Joe Dube’s career, a career during which, it should be noted, that Joe performed some extraordinary lifts in events other than the Olympic three.

For example, Joe once full squatted 710 lb. for 17 reps with no wraps of any kind. He deadlifted 710 for 5 reps with no special training or effort, push pressed 505, jerked 530 from the rack and front squatted 660 for 3 reps. Any one of these feats is outstanding in its own right.

At this point in his life, Joe enjoyed several years of well-earned retirement but, ultimately, that resilient “iron bug” coaxed him onto the competitive platform once again, in 1980. Now nearly 36 years old, Dube snatched 140 kg. and clean and jerked 185 kg. pounds in his first comeback competition. He then took third place at the 1980 National championship and went on to win the American Cup competition later that year. At the 1981 Nationals, he took second place once again, with a 347.5 kg. total. That event marked his last competition.

In establishing junior and senior American records, in setting junior world and senior world records, in becoming the first teenager in history the world to press 400 pounds and the first American to total 1300 pounds, in winning an Olympic medal and becoming superheavyweight champion of the world, Joe Dube certainly had great career. But his contribution to his beloved sport did not end when he retired from the platform, as for many years Joe appeared at weightlifting competitions, local and national, to help wherever he could. He attributed a part of his giving spirit to in incident early in his career that contains a lesson for us all.

The incident was a meeting that Joe had with the great Olympic Weightlifting champion and strongman, Paul Anderson. Joe was competing at the Tournament of Champions competition where he set his first junior world record. Paul was giving one of his legendary strength exhibitions (which Paul conducted all around the country after he retired from weightlifting).

As usual, Paul’s exhibition of his great gift and creation, his physical strength, inspired his audience, including the young Joe Dube. And seeing the great Paul Anderson perform might have been enough to inspire Joe to go on to even greater deeds. But after his exhibition, Paul took the time to give Joe something more. He spoke with Joe directly, and at length. Paul told the young boy that he could be a world champion as Paul had been. Paul told Joe that if he truly came to believe in himself his dreams would become possible.

To the end of his life, Joe credited that talk with Paul as having been one of the greatest inspirations of his life. It helped him to develop the confidence to pursue his dream and to become the world's best.

The lesson for all is not a new one, but one that is very worthy of being repeated. The lesson is that as we move through our daily lives we should be aware of the opportunities we have to embody and support the ideals of strength and healthy living. For we never know who we will touch or in what way. We never know what minor comment, what small act, what word of encouragement may give someone else the spiritual fuel needed to drive him or her forward to do great deeds and to live a life of strength and health.

Joe carried this philosophy close to his heart, as anyone who saw him at competitions and in the gym learned. In so doing he inspired young people everywhere he went, carrying the word about our great sport. That is why Joe’s kind, caring and courageous heart, as well as his tremendous strength of body, has made him the inspiration that he continued to be through the end of his life in September of 2025, and beyond.