Uniting Powerlifting Federations

Submitted by jon on November 13, 2005 - 1:02pm.

Kieren Kidder has made a short post at Go Heavy about a meeting he had with IPF president Norbert Wallauch, with a title of "Potential progress".

In it he says

After spending a couple of hours with Norbert it was obvious that we share many of the same points of view, and we both love powerlifting. We discussed many issues pro/con that concern us about the sports irecton.

Of course they both love powerlifting. So do each of the leaders of the many powerlifting federations. So do the lifters in each of those federations. But that common ground probably isn't enough to bring powerlifting together. It's an extremely fractured sport. That makes it a less credible one in many eyes.

Can we expect anything to come of this meeting? Or is this just pr posturing? Is there any hope for some sort of unification of powerlifting? Or are the federations and lifters so far apart with regards to equipment, drug testing, judging and egos that unification is next to impossible?

The first step is always a willingness to talk. In that respect, the meeting is a good thing. But there's a heck of a lot else that stands between achieving any sort of unified sport of Powerlifting.

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Submitted by Stinn on November 13, 2005 - 4:35pm. » quote

The only way that powerlifting will have a chance of uniting, in my opinion, is if the Olympics picks it up. At that point I think alot of peoples wish to compete at the Olympics would force them into whatever (new?) federation follows the Olympics rule set. Of course if the Olympics picks up powerlifing it will be a far different thing than what most people think of it. I'd see all gear, besides possibly a belt and wraps, being discarded and it would be more or less like the raw feds around.
Within ten to fifteen years of powerlifing being an olympic sport I'd think that 90% of other federations would have disappeared. However this is just speculation.

Submitted by jon on November 13, 2005 - 4:53pm. » quote

I also tend to think that having powerlifting picked up as an Olympic sport is the only hope of any sort of unification. However, I think it's open to dispute whether Olympic rules would specify raw lifting. My bet would be that anything over single ply would certainly be banned. But I'm less certain that single ply would be.

I also think it's possible that a very visible professional federation or so would continue to exist offering non drug tested and ultra equipped meets. Additionally, I think equipped lifting is popular enough that smaller amateur federations would continue on. Having said that, powerlifting would still be much less fractured than today.