Alberta Powerlifting Union
Executive Council
Shane Martin
President/ Referee chairmen
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Shane Martin competed in his first competition after one of his best friends beat him in a push-up contest. Since then, he has won the Alberta Provincial Championships, National Championships, and Pan-American/NAPF Championships, Arnold Sports Festival, and earned a silver bench medal at Open Worlds. He has multiple Provincial and National records and is the best male equipped bench presser of all-time in Canada.
Shane has been actively involved on the administrative side of powerlifting since 2010 when he joined the APU as the Media Chairmen. Shane is also a IPF Cat II referee, meet director, and coach. As a coach, Shane led the Team Canada Master Female, coaches Smartlifts, and has been on Team Alberta coaching staff for several years. Shane's goals during his term in council are to maintain a high level of adherence to policy and rules, develop events to bring powerlifters together, continue to develop APUs high quality meet experience and to strengthen the community of powerlifting across Alberta. |
Avi Silverberg
Vice-pRESIDENT
cONTACT
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Avi Silverberg is a 3-time World Team athlete, bronze medalist at the 2010 World Bench Press Championships, three-time Overall National Bench Press Champion, National Bench Press Record Holder, and member of the Canadian Powerlifting Union Hall of Fame.
Avi is actively involved in coaching, including serving as the Head Coach for Team Canada powerlifting on various International teams. Avi graduated with a Master's of Science in Kinesiology with a specific research focus in coaching elite master athletes in powerlifting. Avi also has a strong commitment to the development of powerlifting and the sport generally. To this end, he has been member of the Alberta Powerlifting Union Executive Committee since 2012, previously serving as the Executive Secretary and President. Avi is a National-level referee; director of many local, provincial, and National powerlifting competitions; and, member of the Canadian Powerlifting Union Student Scholarship Committee and Competition Committee. Avi also runs the PowerliftingTechnique.com blog. |
Mike Macdonald
Treasurer
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Mike MacDonald has been an active powerlifter since 2005 and started competing on Team Canada as a sub-junior. He has won several gold and silver medals at the IPF World Championships, and placed 3rd in the 100kg class in 2012. He has won best overall at the Arnold Classic and was named the Champion of Champions at the CPU Nationals in both the Open and Junior categories on a number of occasions. Mike is currently ranked 3rd in the Men’s Open All-Time Top 100 for the CPU and holds almost every national record in the 90kg and 100kg equipped class.
In addition to his athletic success, Mike is also involved in the administration of the sport. He is a member of the Executive Committee, currently acting as Treasurer of the Alberta Powerlifting Union, and volunteers regularly as platform manager at local competitions. Mike is passionate about developing the sport and getting people involved at an early age. Mike brings to the table 5 years of corporate accounting and finance experience as a Chartered Accountant. He has acted as a treasurer on several other not-for-profit boards during his career, and currently is a Financial Analyst at Husky Energy Inc. |
ANGELINA VAN RYSWYK
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Angelina Van Ryswyk has been a powerlifter since competing at her first meet in 2012 at Powersurge. Since then, she has competed at the Alberta Provincial Championships, CPU Nationals, and the NAPF Championships in 2015 where she won silver. Along with being an athlete, Angelina is a national referee and volunteers at many of the meets held in Alberta. She prides herself and providing fair and unbiased judgment of APU athletes on the platform and looks forward to being a part of the continued growth of the sport. As interim executive secretary, Angelina is involved in the administration of the sport in Alberta. As well, Angelina is a skilled IT professional who brings a wide range of computer savvy knowledge to help better the records management within Alberta. |
Carla Ramsay
Athlete Representative
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Carla has been a lifter of heavy things for the past 25 years but didn’t get involved with powerlifting specifically until 2012. She is a National bronze and silver medalist in her age and weight class. Most recently she competed at the World Championships in Minsk, Belarus. However, her real passion for the sport lies in coaching.
She was the first female to ever be appointed as a Head Coach for Team Canada and has been working with their international teams since 2015. As the co-founder of The BarBELLES, she has spent the past 6 years teaching others the ins and out of the sport, working predominately with female athletes. She loves being able to share the confidence that the sport can bring into one’s life as well as introducing them to the powerlifting community. There is no other sport where others genuinely want to see others succeed. It may be an individual sport but no athlete gets ahead in the sport without the support of volunteers, refs, coaches, spectators and friends, that they make in the community. |
Eric Sondergard
Results Chairman
Contact
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Eric Sondergard is an active local powerlifter who caught the iron bug after his first meet in January 2015. With an athletic background consisting of nearly a decade of minor hockey and summer sports like golf and baseball, Eric hopes to build on his local successes and progress to higher levels in Canadian powerlifting. When he’s not working or training, he spends his time playing music and tinkering in his garage.
As the Results Chairman, Eric hopes to create a more locally-competitive environment by keeping the membership informed of top competition results from around the province. His skills as a professional software developer will help the APU stay up-to-date and keep its data accessible. |
