Chuck Vinci, a former shoeshine boy from Cleveland whose gold medals in weight lifting at the 1956 and 1960 Summer Olympics were the last to be won by an American man, died on June 13 in Westlake, Ohio. He was 85.
His son Curt said the cause was congestive heart failure.
“I used to dream of just having state records,” Vinci told The Associated Press in 1988. “The will of the Lord came through.”
Vinci (pronounced VIN-see) achieved far more than glory in Ohio. He is considered one of the greatest weight lifters of all time.