USAWA

A week ago, we highlighted the Women’s Leadership Award winner, and much of what was said there could be applied to the Men’s 2026 Leadership Award Winner, Sanjiv Gupta. But, like many who exhibit leadership qualities, Sanjiv’s contributions are unique to him. Sanjiv came into the USAWA and established what is to-date our western-most club, High Country Vigour. We’ll have more to say about the club later, but Sanjiv leads the club with vigour (we’ll keep the British spelling). His gym has hosted or co-hosted some of the eight championship meets central to the USAWA’s calendar. He and his gym partners have come up with a couple more meets as well. Personally, he’s encouraged his daughters to compete and been a champion for finding fairer ways to compare women’s and men’s results. As a competitor, he accumulated 216 records as of the 2^nd Quarter, enough to be in the top 20 for men all-time (18^th). Anyone following his competitive trajectory has seen that he’s getting stronger and defying father time. He encourages remote participation in meets hosted at his gym and participates in other gym meets. He’s served the USAWA on the Executive Committee as Secretary and currently, Vice President. He is a key link between the USAWA and the IAWA – and has traveled to worlds outside the USA. He also writes often for the USAWA encouraging more participation or bringing to our attention a great topic for conversation. Voters this year noted his devotion to the health and vigour of the USAWA. He recently came to Nationals and ran the meeting very well. By day – he works as an engineer for the Colorado Department of Transportation. Congratulations to the 2026 USAWA Men’s Leadership Award winner, Sanjiv Gupta!