Member Spotlight: Jon Stoklosa

by Sasha Reddy

Being an athlete with Down syndrome, Jonathan Stoklosa naturally attracts attention. Whether sitting in the HAC café enjoying lunch with his parents, Hank and Liz, or swimming laps in the outdoor pool, every visit yields warm conversation with fellow members turned friends and reinforces his sense of belonging. And it’s not just Jon’s disability that’s earned him so many fans at HAC and in the community beyond; it’s the kindness and humility he maintains despite the extraordinary life he’s lived. Recently retired from a commendable 20-year powerlifting career, he’s rubbed elbows with celebrities like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Joe Biden, earned the moniker “Superman” from fellow competitors, and, as of this past May, secured his seat in the Delaware Sports Hall of Fame.

Early Days

When Hank and Liz’s third son was diagnosed with Down syndrome, they worked up a list of five things they wanted for him as a child with a disability: “go to school, get a job, live in a community, develop a circle of friends, and exercise his freedom of choice.” Their simple wish was for Jon to live an ordinary, dignified life. “What my other boys did, that’s what we expected from Jon,” Hank says. “Including discipline.”

Yet, from an early age, it was clear that Jon was destined for greatness. As a preteen, he began lifting weights with his brothers, Jason and Jeff, in the basement of their Newark home. “They would do curl burnouts,” Hank explains. “At about 12 years old, he was probably benching 225.” Soon after, he started working with a trainer to improve his form and safely hone that strength.

Jon first competed in the powerlifting meet at the 1998 Delaware Special Olympics. He was just 16 years old, the minimum age to participate, and just one year later, he claimed a gold medal in bench press at the 1999 Special Olympics World Summer Games.

Putting in the Work

Jon’s powerlifting training became a year-round affair around 2002. He worked one-on-one with his trainer most of the time, and in the months leading up to a meet, he’d also participate in group sessions with other Special Olympics competitors. Picture the scene: a thin skim of chalk dust and sweat droplets coats the floors as the audible grunts of fellow lifters medley with the clanging of heavy plates on metal bars.

“And our guys were over in the corner lifting or doing a lot of other prep work,” Hank says.

The Special Olympics athletes spent little time practicing their peak-weight bench presses, squats, and deadlifts. Instead, much time was spent exercising supporting muscles for each lift and coaching competition cues. “You need to know the commands that are done in the meet, so you have to start teaching them right away so they get used to it and listen,” Hank says. He was among the volunteers who helped coach athletes on their technique, from placing the bar evenly across their back to squatting, holding the squat position, and rising steadily back to standing, all on the judge’s cue.

It was a lot of training for just one meet per year. “[Jon] wanted to do more,” Hank says. As soon as he’d achieved a 300lb press, Jon began participating in traditional powerlifting meets alongside annual Special Olympics games.

Special Olympics awards medals for each of the three powerlifting events – squat, bench press, and deadlift – and a medal for the total weight for all three events. In traditional powerlifting meets, medals are only given based on the total weight lifted, and athletes must participate in all three events. Each athlete also attempts each lift three times: once at a low weight, once at their target weight, and finally, once at an “aspirational” weight. While your score ultimately comes down to the amount of weight you lift, form is also a huge factor across all competitive powerlifting events. “You have to do the lift,” Hank explains. “You have to do it right. You can’t grab a deadlift and drag it up.” Dropping weights once a lift is completed will get you red-lighted quickly, and failing to hold the weight at the top of your lift for long enough to satisfy judges can disqualify you, too.

Changing Lanes

By the mid-2010s, Jon had solidified his reputation as one of the strongest Special Olympics powerlifting athletes and as a respected lifter more broadly. He’d earned dozens of medals – too many to know what to do with, his mother Liz reports, smiling – and competed in regional and national-level meets outside the Special Olympics. Around this time, with help from John Buzby, the Director of Media Relations and in-house announcer for Special Olympics Delaware, Liz, Hank, and Jon submitted their first application to the Delaware Sports Hall of Fame. But it would be almost ten years before Jon would see the fruits of that labor.

According to the Delaware Sports Museum and Hall of Fame, to be considered for induction, an athlete “must be judged to have brought lasting fame and recognition to Delaware through his/her contributions in athletics or have been outstanding within the state’s borders.”

Meanwhile, Jon earned another impressive notch in his belt in 2018 when he was honored as a member of the Special Olympics of Delaware Hall of Fame. It was an outstanding, well-deserved recognition in its own right and a promising sign that Jon may soon be recognized in the Delaware Sports Hall of Fame, too.

But as we have learned from living through a global pandemic, circumstances can change unexpectedly at a moment’s notice. Due to COVID-19, all Special Olympics meets and many traditional powerlifting competitions were canceled in 2020 and 2021. By the time these competitions returned, Jon had decided he would no longer participate.

“Why not?” Hank turns and asks his son to clarify.

“Tired,” Jon responds simply.

While Jon still lifts for fitness and leisure, he also began swimming around this time. One day, he and Liz were sitting in the hot tub observing Jack Siebold, the US Masters swim coach at HAC, giving swim lessons in the adjacent pool. Jon remarked to his mom about wanting to enroll in lessons with Jack, too, so Liz walked right over to discuss the idea and get her son signed up.

“Jack had seen Jon,” Liz notes, “so he knew he was a good swimmer.” You may not guess it by his looks or strength, but Jon is very graceful in the water. In fact, Jack worked with Jon for just two sessions before deciding he didn’t have much to teach him. Jon is a visual learner, and after spending enough time observing Jack with other clients, Jon had clearly picked up a thing or two. Having put his powerlifting days behind him, Jon now participates in swim meets at the Delaware Special Olympics (plus golf and cycling). Liz and her son also swim together at the club at least three times per week. “Lots of times, I pick him up from work, and we come over.”

Putting a Stamp on Sports History

This past March, after so many years of applying, hoping, and reapplying, Hank and Liz finally got the call they’d been waiting for. It began with a call from John Buzby, who had stuck with them throughout their application process. “Answer the next call, please,” Hank recalls Buzby telling him. “You’ll like it.”

Not long after, Hank received a call from a woman at the Delaware Sports Museum and Hall of Fame. At first, Hank was skeptical of the woman’s claim that Jon had been chosen as a 2024 inductee. They’d applied and waited so many years that, for a moment, it didn’t seem real—Hank was worried he’d been pranked. He was absolutely overjoyed when he finally felt convinced that the news was true.

“I can’t believe that it came true,” Liz said. It’d been nearly ten years since they first applied, and the Stoklosas had stopped hoping anything would come of it.
Hank and Liz attribute much of Jon’s powerlifting success to the aid of his trainers and coaches. Brandon McGovern, Jon’s trainer since 2004, has been particularly influential. “He’s awesome and has obviously become a big part of our lives,” says Liz.

“Nobody bullied Jon. Not because he was big and strong and could take you down in a heartbeat. It’s because he had 15 brothers; he had the rest of that team out there.”

Brandon has always put an extreme emphasis on proper form. Back in 2014, for example, Jon hurt his foot during training. After a few weeks of healing, Brandon brought Jon into the gym to try and pinpoint the cause of the injury. Starting from zero weight on the bar and slowly adding little by little, Brandon had Jon deadlift over and over so he could evaluate his lifting form at different weights. At around 320lbs, Brandon started seeing Jon curl in the toes on his left foot, straining the tendons and ligaments, and they worked diligently to improve Jon’s foot posture. He wore a boot on his foot until just moments before performing his lift at the national games that year. Despite no longer competing, Jon still works out with Brandon once a week.

A More Than Normal Life

Hank and Liz have never been helicopter parents. They’ve always believed in letting Jon discover his strengths and shortcomings for himself and allowing him the chance to fail. In the early years of his powerlifting career, Jon was also a member of the Newark High wrestling team, where he did not have the same athletic success. He achieved one win and 61 losses during his career. In an interview for WBUR’s Only a Game, his father, Hank, told interviewer Christine Laskowski that Jon may not have been the best wrestler but gained a lot from being on the team. “Nobody bullied Jon,” he says. “Not because he was big and strong and could take you down in a heartbeat. It’s because he had 15 brothers; he had the rest of that team out there.”

In fact, several of Jon’s wrestling teammates were so inspired and impressed by their interactions with him that they later pursued careers working with individuals with special needs. Occasionally, the Stoklosas run into Jon’s old classmates and wrestling opponents at restaurants and bars. They’re always overjoyed to come up and say hello.

Liz remembers holding her youngest son as a baby, already thinking then of everything she hoped he’d achieve as an adult with Down syndrome. Looking back on those days and the five goals she and Hank laid out for Jon, she can’t help but laugh at her own under-simplification of how his life might look. Yes, Jon attended his local schools: Shue-Medill for middle and Newark for high school. He’s also been working at the Acme in Pike Creek for 20 years. Jon engages with his community in many ways, from participating in Special Olympic-sponsored events like the Polar Bear Plunge and Over the Edge to giving talks with his dad about respect and perseverance to school students. His circles of friends include fellow members at HAC, neighbors, old classmates, lifting buddies, fellow Special Olympics swimmers, cyclists, golfers, coworkers, and beyond. “It gets bigger all the time,” Hank notes. And Jon certainly gets to exercise his freedom of choice. He became prolific enough in his powerlifting career to be inducted into the Delaware Sports Hall of Fame, and when he felt the time was right, he was able to switch sports and pursue new athletic interests. From the wrestling mat to the powerlifting platform and now the pool, Jon Stoklosa’s journey celebrates embracing challenges and inspiring others through living an ordinary, extraordinary life.