Lou Eleuteri doesn’t plan on slowing down any time soon.

The 63-year-old competitive powerlifter, with 11 national and five world championships to his credit, has Oct. 18, the date of the Ohio Powerlifting Championships in Youngstown, circled on his calendar.

In his gym at his house in Blairsville, Eleuteri, who works security at Arnold Palmer Regional Airport in Latrobe, has twice-a-week workouts carefully planned.

“I love to find challenges and push myself to see if I can do something other people can’t do,” he said. “That’s been in me since I was a kid. I turn 64 in January, and I am already thinking about what I can do next year. I will be in a whole different age bracket.”

Eleuteri wants to build on his most recent competitive accomplishment, a 505-pound deadlift in the 242-pound weight class that captured both the masters and overall open titles at the National Drug Free Powerlifting Championships on July 12 in Youngstown.

“Nine times out of 10, an older guy won’t enter the open division and compete with the younger guys. He feels he won’t do well,” said Eleuteri, who has won championships in each of the past six decades of a career which began in 1974. “I say, ‘Why not try?’ If I even place against those guys, I feel good. To win, it was awesome. It’s an honor.”

July’s competition originally was scheduled for March 24, but as with most events, it was postponed because of safety measures taken amid the growing coronavirus pandemic.

Eleuteri, who has trained and competed drug free his entire career, said he was feeling strong in March but suddenly had to regroup and refocus for July.

Event organizers announced the July 12 date less than two weeks prior.

Eleuteri was nursing a couple of injuries heading into July, and he thought about not competing.

“But I decided to go, and I’m glad I did,” he said.

Eleuteri said he often doesn’t worry about who he is competing against. The focus is more on competing against the weight.

“The weights never have a bad day,” he said. “Whatever sport you are in, on a given day, the opponent might not have their best day. But for me, I always know that if the bar is loaded to 500 pounds or 550 or whatever, I know it’s going to be that weight, no matter what. I enter an event hoping that my training will dictate success in the number I am going for. Getting wrapped up in what other lifters are doing is counterproductive.”

Eleuteri is the youngest member of the Indiana County Sports Hall of Fame. His accomplishments were recognized and celebrated in April 1986.

He first competed in November 1974 during his senior year at Homer-Center High School.

Two years later, at age 19, he won the 181-pound title at the Teenage National Powerlifting Championship in Little Rock, Ark.

At the event, he competed in three categories and lifted 1,400 total pounds (490 squat, 330 bench press and 580 deadlift). The win earned him Masters status, one of the highest levels of distinction in powerlifting, and the 580 deadlift and overall total set national teenage records.

Eleuteri moved up to the 220-pound class and won the 1979 Ohio Valley Open. His total of 1,640 pounds lifted included an all-time personal-best deadlift of 705 pounds.

He has fought off various injuries that slowed his powerlifting career at times.

A proponent of a strength training regimen which includes kettlebells, Eleuteri earned Russian Kettleball Challenge instructor certification in Oct. 2007.

In May 2010, at age 53, Eleuteri, who has been featured in both Powerlifting USA and Sports Illustrated magazines, set a state record with a 600-pound deadlift in the 220-pound class at the WNPF’s Western Pennsylvania Championships.

A couple of months later, he pulled 605 pounds at the WNPF Nationals and came away with the win.

Eleuteri’s athletic ability over the years wasn’t contained to just powerlifting, as a dedication to American Freestyle Karate earned him black belt status in 1988.

“I am almost never satisfied,” Eleuteri said of his training and competition endeavors. “I am driven to challenge myself and do well.”

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