Your United States Strongman is proud to welcome Chris Vachio to the USS Revolution. Chris is a staple at strongman parties and will be join Shawn Schumaker as Ohio Co-State Rep. We look forward to many more installments of "Kilted Wisdom!" Here is Chris in his own words!
Back in the spring of 2009, I bought a log from Steve Slater. He invited me to train events with him at his warehouse on Saturday mornings when I came in to order the log. Two weeks later, I took him up on that offer and I have pretty much been in love with the sport ever since.
I competed in my first contest that summer. Jumped right in as an open, wasn’t fully ready, got my ass handed to me, but made some wonderful friends that day who are still good friends to this day. Three contests that year and I haven’t competed in less than 8 in any year since (though it’s not looking good for 2017). If you compete in the Midwest, odds are you’ll see a fat, bearded dude in a kilt laughing his ass off and generally having the time of his life. That’d be me.
I started promoting contests in 2013 and have promoted 15 since then, including the only locally promoted disabled contest in the USA and the heaviest amateur contest in the world (3 years running on both of those).
I love this sport and I love the people in it. I want to do all I can to help grow the sport, particularly on the disabled side of things. I can’t think of anything I would rather be doing with my spare time, full time if I ever win the lottery and don’t need a job for that pesky food and shelter thing. The tattoos on my forearms say “Strength & Laughter” in Italian. Those are my two guiding principles in life. Lifting heavy shit and having fun. Come join the party!