Lake Oswego powerlifter Terry Shanley sets records and goes viral, too
Published 5:00 am Sunday, September 13, 2026
You’ve all heard the phrase “Age is just a number,” right?
Lake Oswego’s Terry Shanley — now 70 years old — is living it.
Here are some other numbers Shanley is living with — his bench press, squat and deadlift totals are all over 300 pounds and earned him Oregon records for the 70-74 age group despite taking up powerlifting less than five months earlier.
What he accomplished
Shanley broke onto the Oregon powerlifting scene after just four months in the sport. He started his powerlifting training on April 20, working with eight-time world champion Rudy Kadlub (a United States Powerlifting Association Hall of Fame member), and was an Oregon record holder by the end of August.
In his first competition, the USPA Tested and Open 2K26 Summer Showdown in Springfield on Aug. 29, Shanley broke through big-time. He competed in three events and set Oregon records in each for his age group and weight class (110 kilos [242 pounds]), finishing with a bench press of 314, a squat of 303, a deadlift of 363 and a total of 980.
“It was one of the best days of my life,” Shanley said. “It kind of opened me up to what’s still possible for this 70-year-old body.”
How he got started
Shanley, who wrestled, swam and competed in baseball, basketball, football, gymnastics and track growing up, has always worked out.
While powerlifting was never on the menu before, he became a convert pretty quickly.
“I’ve made a career by saying ‘OK,’” Shanley said. “Rudy asked if I’d train with him and I said ‘Okay.’ And since things were going pretty well and there was an opportunity to do something significant, it kind of whetted my appetite for it.”
Kadlub knew he had something special when he began training Shanley.
“He’s always been a pretty good bench presser because of his upper body strength as a wrestler,” Kadlub said, noting that Shanley needs to continue making gains in his squat and deadlift. “He hadn’t really trained for those, so his squat and his deadlift — although they were state records — have a lot of room for improvement.”
The wink that went round the world
At this point, Shanley has made a name for himself in powerlifting, but he went viral — again, at age 70 — for another reason.
During his competition in Springfield, as he completed his record-setting squat and waited to re-rack the bar, he looked toward his mother, 91-year-old Frankie Shanley, and gave her a confident wink.
His daughter, Madison Shanley, captured and posted the moment on her Instagram account and the original video has generated more than 5 million views, reached more than 3 million viewers and generated more than 400,000 likes, 54,000 shares, 11,500 reposts, 21,000 saves and 3,900 comments.
“As soon as I got the weight up … I just looked over at my mom and winked at her,” Shanley said, describing his mom as the “heartbeat of the family.” “There are very few 70-year-olds that get to have their lifelong supporter — their mom — watch them compete and be successful. And that meant everything in the world to me.”
What’s next
Because of his success in the Summer Showdown, Shanley qualified for the 2026 International Powerlifting World Championships on Nov. 22 at the Westgate Las Vegas Resort & Casino in Las Vegas.
He’ll be competing with Kadlub in Las Vegas and has more big goals in mind.
“About four months ago, I was training with Rudy and he looked at some records and said, ‘You’re not that far away from a world record in the bench press,’” Shanley said. “I said, ‘What?’ He said, ‘Let’s start training for it,’ so we did.”
“Our goal for the bench press is 330,” said Kadlub. “That’s what we’re working towards, but we’ll bring his squat and his bench up too.”
People can follow Shanley’s training and journey to the World Championship on Instagram at @legendaryterrylifts.
