Weightlifter, her coach: the Opening Ceremony

The wedding of a U.S. alternate becomes international affair.

By JOHN ROMANO

© St. Petersburg Times, published September 15, 2000

BANKSTOWN, Australia -- The bride wore a bare-backed gown with a pearl necklace. The groom was in a formal black tuxedo with two roses pinned to his lapel. The bouncers went casual.

As nuptials go, this one owed more to the National Enquirer than Modern Bride. U.S. weightlifter Suzanne Leathers married long-time coach Don McCauley on Thursday before God, her teammates and a scroungy international press corps.

This was not a storybook affair, unless your wedding fantasies include a pushy French photographer getting escorted from the premises in the middle of the ceremony because he keeps sticking his lens in the bride's face.

If not romantic, the wedding certainly was spellbinding. Gamblers left their slot machines in the casino across the hall. An American tourist wandered in from the street after seeing all the camera crews. He was at least kind enough to remove his Cleveland Indians cap as he sat in the second row next to a man wearing shorts and drinking a Foster's.

A woman in the third row -- who had asked minutes earlier who the bride and groom were -- cried midway through the service.

"I thought it sounded like a quirky idea when they first brought it up," said Lauren Leathers, the bride's sister and the maid of honor. "But they managed to pull it all off."

Credit, or perhaps blame, for the quirky idea goes to McCauley. As Leathers spent the past year training for a shot at the Olympics, he suggested they tie their wedding plans around the Games. The original idea was for the ceremony to take place after the Olympics.

Unfortunately, Leathers made the team only as an alternate. That meant, if no one dropped off the team, Leathers would have to go home or pay for her own accommodations once the Olympics began.

So, on the morning of her wedding, Leathers received word that she would not be competing.

"The timing was not good, but that comes with the territory when you're an alternate," McCauley said. "An alternate has to be ready at a moment's notice; and that's why Suzanne would have been a perfect choice, because they knew she was going to keep working to stay in shape."

U.S. national team coach Michael Cohen seemed to endorse the plan. At least it looked that way, since he gave away the bride. Team members Cheryl Haworth, Cara Heads-Lane and Robin Goad were part of the wedding party, and a dozen or so friends, spouses and support crew from the weightlifting team were the only "official guests" at the wedding.

At least 100 people viewed the ceremony, however, since it was held in the atrium of the Bankstown Sports Club and passers-by were free to pull up a chair as they made their way from the slot machines to the TVs showing rugby matches in the Rainforest Tree Lounge.

The couple also made an open-ended invitation to the media and drew at least 25 still photographers and another dozen video crews. The media was on its best game. A typical post-wedding exchange:

Reporter: Is Suzanne still in training?

Don: Absolutely. She'll be working out tomorrow.

Reporter: As her coach, are you forbidding sex while she is training?

Don: Next question.

The two plan to honeymoon in Australia for a week before heading home to Savannah, Ga. They will have a wedding party for their friends in Savannah and then return to their native Rhode Island and have a reaffirmation ceremony for their families on Thanksgiving weekend.

Leathers, 28, is an ICU nurse who seems accustomed to crowds and commotion. She said she hardly noticed the photographers jostling for position within a few feet of her as she recited her wedding vows.

"The only problem I had was having to stand still," she said. "Usually when I'm on a stage, I'm competing and I have something to do. It's a lot harder when you're the center of the attention and you can't move."

The Bankstown Sports Club, intrigued with the idea of pre-Olympic publicity, agreed to spring for the wedding. The club footed the bill for drinks, appetizers and a meal for guests afterward.

It also provided the wedding cake with marzipan icing.

The flavor?

Fruitcake.

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