As a youth, Frank Rothwell competed in multiple sports and took up boxing for fitness training, but when he was 16 he joined the Clonmel Sandow Barbell Club, when his interest in fitness led to bodybuilding and weightlifting. In 1953 he joined the Irish Army and in January 1956 he was moved to London, where he joined the Huddersfield Criterion Weightlifting Club, winning the Yorkshire Weightlifting Championship in 1961. He returned to Ireland in 1963 and won his first national title. He would eventually win eight Irish titles and set 43 Irish records, in addition to winning several Yorkshire and Northeast England titles. He competed at the World and European Championships in addition to his 1972 Olympic appearance, all while working full-time as an engineer. But Rothwell retired from competition after the Munich Olympics, although he continued to lift for fitness. He returned to school at the Open University and received a BA in history and literature.
Ireland