Powerlifting crowns squat, bench, and deadlift maxes
Powerlifting asks athletes for three maximal single attempts each on squat, bench press, and deadlift—odd-lift roots refined into a strength sport. Lifters compete raw or equipped with supportive shirts and suits. It joined the Paralympics (bench only) in 1984 and appears in the World Games under the IPF.
Strength feats go back to ancient Maya and Persian traditions, and Greek men lifted stones to prove their manhood, but the modern sport took shape in Britain and the United States in the 1950s. In America, Bob Hoffman launched the magazine Muscular Development partly to counter Joe Weider’s growing influence, covering bodybuilding and the booming odd-lift contests. Of 42 recognised lifts, the curl, bench press and squat became the standard Strength Set until 1965; in 1966 British lifters dropped the curl for the deadlift to match American practice.
The second AAU world championships, held on 10 and 11 November 1972, drew 67 lifters, 47 of them American, with weights in pounds and the bench press first. The International Powerlifting Federation was founded that same month, and its first world championships, in York in November 1973, had 47 entrants including 34 Americans. Teams were first selected in advance in 1974, when a 52-kilogram class was added. The European federation followed in May 1977, US women held national championships in 1978 and the IPF added women’s events in 1980.
Resistance to IPF drug testing led Larry Pacifico and Ernie Frantz to found the American Powerlifting Federation in 1982, openly opposed to all testing. Scott Taylor’s associations of 1987 offered tested and untested divisions, and the USPF was expelled from the IPF in 1997 for failing to meet its demands. Paralympic powerlifting began in 1984 for men with spinal cord injuries, and women joined at Sydney in 2000, each sex with ten weight classes.
Belts and knee wraps, originally simple Ace bandages, predate the sport, but John Inzer’s 1983 bench shirt was the first gear unique to it. Rulebooks still differ: the IPF requires a start command on the bench, while NASA has never used one.
Source: Powerlifting
