The International Powerlifting Federation (IPF) has confirmed its calendar for 2024, which features brand-new events. With the IPF elite vying for qualification for the 2025 World Games, 2024 promises to be a great year for powerlifting. Here’s a quick rundown:
February 2024 — Sheffield Powerlifting Championships
The first event of 2024 is the highly anticipated second edition of the Sheffield Powerlifting Championships. The brainchild of SBD Apparel will occur on Feb. 10, 2024, in Sheffield, UK, and feature 24 of the IPF’s top raw lifters.
There is a huge prize fund at play: the top prize of £25,000 (approximately $31,800) will be awarded to whoever scores the highest proportion of the IPF world total record in their class. There are also £5,000 bonuses for any Open IPF world record broken. Therefore, a single individual could potentially achieve a payout of £45,000 ($57,300).
March — Arnold Sports Festival UK
On March 15, the Arnold Sports Festival UK returns. The IPF will host raw and equipped lifting at the heart of the event in Birmingham, UK. Top lifters from all over Europe will compete for cash prizes and world records across three days of powerlifting and bench pressing.
May — World Bench Press Championships
The first IPF World Championships of 2024 are the World Bench Press Championships in Austin, TX. This will be a mammoth event, spanning 11 days, covering all age categories for raw and equipped benchers.
The contest begins on May 21, 2024, and will adopt a format in which age classes lift during the day and Open classes lift in the evening prime time session.
June — World Classic Powerlifting Championships
The World Classic Powerlifting Championships (CWC) begin on June 16, 2024, in Druskininkai, Lithuania. This is one of the IPF’s flagship events. The 2023 edition in Malta drew record viewership. It received well over half a million views on some of the YouTube livestreams; two of the sessions were broadcast live to millions on the Eurosport and Eurosport Asia TV channels.
The 2024 CWC is a qualifying meet for the 2025 World Games (TWG) in Chengdu, China — the 2025 TWG will be the first time classic powerlifting is featured in the multi-sport event. At TWG, the standard IPF weight classes are combined as follows, giving four classes rather than eight:
2025 The World Games Weight Classes
Men’s Lightweight (59kg and 66kg)
Men’s Middleweight (74kg and 83kg)
Men’s Heavyweight (93kg and 105kg)
Men’sSuper-Heavyweight (120kg and 120+kg)
Women’s Lightweight (47kg and 52kg)
Women’s Middleweight (57kg and 63kg)
Women’s Heavyweight (69kg and 76kg)
Women’s Super–Heavyweight (84kg and 84+kg)
The top three in each weight class at the 2024 CWC automatically qualify for the 2025 TWG, with the exception that there cannot be more than two athletes from the same country in a single weight class. A number of wildcards will be allocated by each regional affiliate (Europe, North America, South America, Africa, Asia, and Oceania).
Qualification for the 2025 Sheffield will depend on performance at the CWC.
July — Euro Muscle Show
A new contest has arisen in the IPF calendar, exclusive to the Junior categories. Lifters aged 14-23 will compete in the Euro Muscle Show in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The two-day event begins on July 13, 2024, and offers cash prizes.
July — FISU World Championships
The IPF joined the Fédération Internationale du Sport Universitaire (FISU) in 2019. This will be the first time that powerlifting is featured in the FISU World Championship program. The event is open to university students only and begins on July 23, 2024, in Tartu, Estonia.
August — World Junior Powerlifting Championships
The World Junior Powerlifting Championships features raw and equipped lifting in the sub-Junior (ages 14-18) and Junior (ages 19-23) categories. It begins on Aug. 28, 2024, in sunny Valletta on the beautiful island of Malta.
October — World Masters Powerlifting Championships
In 2024, the IPF’s hardy cohort of Masters lifters will converge on the lush environs of Sun City, South Africa, for the World Masters Powerlifting Championships. This is a huge event covering raw and equipped lifting across four Masters age classes:
Masters 1 — age 40-49
Masters 2 — age 50-59
Masters 3 — age 60-69
Masters 4 — age 70 and up
[Related: Tim Monigatti (74KG) Raw Deadlifts 15 Kilograms Over IPF World Record]
November — World Equipped Powerlifting Championships
The final world championships of 2024 is the World Equipped Powerlifting Championships, beginning on Nov. 11, 2024, in the land of ice and fire — Reykjavik, Iceland. As with the CWC, this competition is a qualifier for the equipped section of the 2025 TWG. The qualification process runs the same way for classic: the 64 best lifters (32 men and 32 women) will be selected to represent their country in Chengdu, China, in 2025.
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Featured image: @theipf on Instagram
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