VINCI, CHARLES T.

born Feb. 28, 1933, Cleveland, Ohio, U.S. American weight lifter who won two Olympic gold medals. Vinci, who stood just 4 feet 10 inches tall, won seven U.S. weightlifting titles in the bantamweight (56-kg [123.5-pound]) division in 195456 and 195861. He won Pan-American Games titles in 1955 and 1959. At the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne, Australia, Vinci won the gold medal with a world record lift of 342.5 kg (755.1 pounds). He tied the world record with a 345-kilogram (760-pound) lift at the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome.