May 2026 Athlete of the Month
By Del Moon, NSGA Storyteller
Maximilian “Max” Cavalli, 64
Scarborough, Maine
Powerlifting and Cycling
Photo courtesy Maximilian Cavalli.
All senior athletes experience illness, injuries or other setbacks. Many, like powerlifter and cyclist Maximilian Cavalli, say their fitness lifestyle helped them make a successful comeback.
Some challenges are more difficult to overcome, and Maximilian faced one of the toughest when he suffered a stroke while on the road for his sales job in 2016. He felt a little tired after a light evening workout in the hotel gym and woke up the next morning with part of his left side frozen.
According to the American Stroke Association, someone has a stroke every 40 seconds in the United States. It’s important to know the warning signs, because the faster a stroke is treated, the more likely a patient is to recover.
“…I learned a full recovery is incremental and takes time,” Maximillian says. “My daughter is an emergency room doctor, and she was very clear that 90 percent of the recovery from a stroke occurs in the first year. Anything after that is incremental.”
Instead of worrying about his fate, Maximilian got to work in rehab — and his persistence paid off. His doctors said that while most stroke survivors attain 75% recovery, they rated his at 97%.
The Brooklyn native credits his lifelong commitment to staying active — from running at the University of Maine to kayaking and competing as both a recreational and competitive cyclist — with keeping his body strong enough to respond well to the stroke. Still, he admits that life’s responsibilities had cut into his training time, and he wasn’t in the shape he ideally wanted to be.
It was later discovered that he needed PFO surgery for a congenital hole in his heart. Maximilian surprised his doctors at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston with his fast rebound. “It was the same team that worked with football great Tedy Bruschi. Afterwards, they said my recovery was the fourth best that they’d ever witnessed, one of which was Tedy, and the other two were Olympians.”
Maximilian is grateful that his employer, Mannington Floors, provided six months of paid leave to support his recovery. The gesture has paid off for the 110-year-old company as he has become their national director of education market segments, saying his sport activities have contributed to his business success.
Finding Powerlifting in Senior Games
Maximilian’s Senior Games journey began in 2018 when a close friend who played basketball in the Maine Senior Games was competing while battling cancer.
Maximilian decided to compete in her honor in Maine, and then attended his first National Senior Games in 2019. He entered the Team Triathlon, where his bike segment helped win a gold medal in the 55+ category.
Maximilian came back to The Games in 2022 and 2023 to compete in Cycling Time Trials. When Powerlifting was added for the 2025 Games in Des Moines, he eagerly signed on. He had lifted weights for decades and was drawn to Powerlifting disciplines before the announcement. Now he could do the 10K Time Trial while also pouring his heart into lifting competitions.
Left: Maximilian looking on the Powerlifting competition at the 2025 National Senior Games presented by Humana. Right: Maximilian lifting in the gym. Photo courtesy Maximilian Cavalli.
He was rewarded with a gold medal in Powerlifting and is confident he will top the podium again at the 2027 National Senior Games presented by Humana in Tulsa.
The two events are a perfect pairing for Maximilian. “I believe that cycling and lifting both support each other…in the bike riding, you’re strengthening your legs for lifting, and then the lifting is strengthening your legs for the bike.”
Deep Family Motivation and Inspiration
Maximillian and one of his grandchildren. Photo courtesy Maximilian Cavalli.
Maximilian credits his parents for giving him a foundation and an appreciation of family. “My father was blind, so as a result, I saw the challenges that he had to live with just going through life and figuring out how to send me to prep school and college,” he recalls. “He provided a vision to understand that you’re probably going to have to make pivots with your journey, and to make accommodations for yourself and be patient.”
The athlete also always wears a diamond pendant with the letter M that belonged to his mother, Mary. “The people that you carry are part of your life and who you are,” he stresses. “The first step is acknowledging that you’re blessed and then understand that you have a responsibility to be a light for other people.”
“I’m just so grateful that I have my beautiful wife, two children and five grandchildren, and that I can do all these things with them,” he notes joyfully. “They say, ‘My grandfather’s the strongest grandfather in the neighborhood!’. I have amazing joy in my life.”
He then adds, “I believe that God has given me these challenges to be a light for other people, to help them realize that they can be more than they think they can be.”
