Gym Puts In Bid To Host American Open

A Palm Desert-based gym has put in a bid to host the 2012 American Open Weightlifting Championships, where competitors vie for the top prize in Olympic weightlifting.

submitted the proposal three weeks ago to hold the competition at the Palm Springs Convention Center, according to the gym’s partial owner Nicholas Frasca.

“We want to help revamp Olympic lifting,” Frasca told Patch. “Who is not going to want to come to Palm Springs. We’re going to expand the base and we want to do something other than just have a meet.”

Frasca said his proposal included holding a golf tournament, an expo for the community and other events.

"We hope to have a meeting with coaches on how we can expand Olympic weightlifting,'' he said.

As many as three other groups have applied to host the championship, including a team in Texas, according to Frasca.

He believes at least two local weightlifters that train at the gym -- the gym's other owner Anthony Pomponio and Anthony Vong of La Quinta -- will qualify for the American Open.

Pomponio, a grad, in his 85 kilo (187 pound) weight class at a national competition in Iowa.

Vong, a La Quinta High School student, last month in the boys 16-17-year-old division, 77 Kilogram weight class in the 2011 National School Age Weightlifting Championships in Flowery Branch, Georgia.