Since 2016, Regionals had been growing at a steady pace. In 2023 Regionals came back strong after the COVID shutdown. Our members had been looking forward to their resurrection  as they were a perfect ‘summer’ meet and have not been disappointed by their Regional experiences . Regionals truly do allow for a National Meet experience at the local level.

We are now accepting bids for 2024 Regionals. All regions are open for bid.

Submit Bids: 2024 Bid Form

All bids are due by August 31^st at 5pm EST.

HIGH-LEVEL SUMMARY:

• Only USA Powerlifting state members within the Region can compete in their designated Regionals. Guest lifters (i.e., lifters from a state outside of the region) are allowed but they will not be eligible for awards. Guest lifters may set state and American records and may earn a qualifying total for a national meet. Guest lifters are subject to all normal rules of competition and must meet the same qualifying criteria to enter the meet.
• Top 3 placings in any division that requires a qualifying total at Raw Nationals and Open Nationals will be awarded a +50kg handicap that will be applied to their total. The total achieved at Regionals plus the +50kg handicap must be equal to or greater than the Qualifying Total (QT) for the Raw/Open National meet that the lifter enters.
• Any handicapped total achieved at a 2023 Regional meet that is greater than or equal to the QT for Raw or Equipped Nationals will allow the athlete entry into 2023 and 2024 Raw or Equipped Nationals.
• The QT for Regionals is 75kg. The QT must have been achieved at a USA Powerlifting sanctioned 3-lift meet since January 1 of the previous year.
• 2024 Regionals will consist of 8 Regions.
• National or higher referees are required to officiate as Chief Referees.
• Eligible referees who have been approved by the Technical Committee can sit for their National Referee test.
• A 3-member jury of National, Cat I or Cat II Referees is preferred.
• American Records can be set at Regionals providing there are 3 National or higher referees judging the lift.
• Regionals are qualifiers for Raw/Open Nationals – Only open and age divisions are allowed, including Adaptive Athletes and MX division. Only full meet, 3-lift competition is allowed.
• All equipment is allowed that meets USA Powerlifting technical standards.
• Access to the warmup area and the coaching area at all USA Powerlifting sanctioned Regional and National events is restricted to USA Powerlifting members in good standing. This applies to athletes, officials, referees, and coaches.
• USA Powerlifting will design the logos, medals, and backdrops.
• Regionals will take place June to August of 2024
• Registration for all regions will open on February 1, 2024
• Entry deadline is 4 weeks out from the start of each Regional.
• The registration fee for all 2024 Regional events will be a minimum of $125. Extra fees and add-ons are at the discretion of the meet director.

REGIONS:

Since 2016, Regionals had been growing at a steady pace. In 2020, Covid forced a temporary halt to Regionals, but our members have been looking forward to their resurrection  as they were a perfect ‘summer’ meet or even a last-minute tune-up or qualifier for Raw Nationals. Regionals allow for a National Meet experience at the local level.

We are now accepting bids for 2023 Regionals. All regions are open for bid except for the Northeast Region. The meet directors who had been awarded the 2020 Regionals were given right of first refusal to host 2023 Regionals.

Submit Bids: 2023 Bid Form

All bids are due by August 31^st at 5pm EST.

HIGH-LEVEL SUMMARY:

• Only USA Powerlifting state members within the Region can compete in their designated Regionals. Guest lifters (i.e., lifters from a state outside of the region) are allowed but they will not be eligible for awards. Guest lifters may set state and American records and may earn a qualifying total for a national meet. Guest lifters are subject to all normal rules of competition and must meet the same qualifying criteria to enter the meet.
• Top 3 placings in any division that requires a qualifying total at Raw Nationals and Open Nationals will be awarded a +50kg handicap that will be applied to their total. The total achieved at Regionals plus the +50kg handicap must be equal to or greater than the Qualifying Total (QT) for the Raw/Open National meet that the lifter enters.
• The QT for Regionals is 75kg. The QT must have been achieved at a USA Powerlifting sanctioned 3-lift meet since January 1 of the previous year.
• 2023 Regionals will consist of 8 Regions.
• National or higher referees are required to officiate as Chief Referees.
• Eligible referees who have been approved by the Technical Committee can sit for their National Referee test.
• A 3-member jury of National, Cat I or Cat II Referees is preferred.
• American Records can be set at Regionals providing there are 3 National or higher referees judging the lift.
• Regionals are qualifiers for Raw/Open Nationals – Only open and age divisions are allowed, including Adaptive Athletes and MX division. Only full meet, 3-lift competition is allowed.
• All equipment is allowed that meets USA Powerlifting technical standards.
• Access to the warmup area and the coaching area at all USA Powerlifting sanctioned Regional and National events is restricted to USA Powerlifting members in good standing. This applies to athletes, officials, referees, and coaches.
• USA Powerlifting will design the logos, medals, and backdrops.
• Regionals will take place June to August of 2023
• Registration for all regions will open on February 1, 2023
• There will no longer be blackout dates for local meets
• Entry deadline is 4 weeks out from the start of each Regional.
• The registration fee for all 2023 Regional events will be a minimum of $125. Extra fees and add-ons are at the discretion of the meet director.

REGIONS:

We are proud to announce that after much planning across the Executive Committee, Technical Committee, and numerous other individual efforts, we are launching four new competition categories. The Adaptive Athlete, MX, Para Bench, and Raw With Wrap categories. These categories will be in effect January 1, 2021 and available to athletes 14 and over at the Local, State, and Regional level. Below you will find more detailed information on each of the new categories.

Adaptive Athlete: The Adaptive Athlete category is intended for those athletes who physically are unable to adhere to 100% of the technical rules of performance as defined in the USA Powerlifting rulebook and would therefore be ineligible to compete. Examples of such situations include, but are not limited to, the following:

• amputated limb(s)/hand(s)/finger(s)/foot/feet/toe(s) with or without use of prosthetic device(s)
• inability to fully extend elbow(s) in the bench press
• inability to fully extend knee(s) in the squat and/or deadlift
• inability to rest head on the bench in the bench press
• inability to place one or both feet flat on the ground/blocks in the bench press
• inability to grasp bar without an assistive device
• inability to grasp bar in accordance with the rules

More in-depth information and details about the Adaptive Athlete Category can be found here.

MX: This new category provides dedicated competition space for any and all athletes no matter how they identify. Competitors who elect to compete within the MX Category compete across 14 weight classes in the Sub-Junior, Junior, Open, and Masters I-IV age categories.

MX category athletes follow the same rules of competition and are held to the same anti-doping requirements as all other categories.

Looking forward, we are working to ensure MX athletes will have a path to compete at a higher level. Starting in 2022, MX athletes will compete at Nationals and with that, have a path to international competition and the opportunity to represent the United States abroad.

The weight classes, which align with the LGBT Powerlifting Union’s MX category are as follows:

Go here for further details and FAQ for the MX category.

Para Bench: Earlier in 2020 we sent a team of our technical experts to study and learn from the US Para Powerlifting organization on how to prepare USA Powerlifting for this new category.

The Paralympic category in USA Powerlifting applies only to the bench press and the category is officially called “Para Bench.” The Para Bench category is open to male and female athletes with one or more of the 8 eligible physical impairments, as defined by World Para Powerlifting, if these impairments have a certain severity that impacts sport performance. There is an official table with a list of eligible impairments available at the link provided at the bottom of this section.

All Para Bench athletes have an impairment in their lower limbs or hips, which would prohibit them from competing in able-bodied powerlifting. For example, athletes with a single or double amputation through or above the ankle or stiffness of the knee joint would be eligible to compete. If an athlete does not have one of the impairment types listed, he or she may petition for a waiver that would allow him or her to compete in the Para Bench category with his or her impairment provided it is in the spirit of what the Para Bench category is intended to represent. USA Powerlifting have been adapted from World Para Powerlifting with some modifications to increase accessibility for athletes.

For a list of eligible impairments as well as more information click here.

Raw With Wraps: This division allows lifters to wear knee wraps that are in accordance with the technical rules; all other rules for raw lifting will be in effect.

Lifters can qualify to compete at Open (Equipped) Nationals, not Raw Nationals, if they meet or exceed the existing Open (Equipped) Category qualifying totals as given on the national website. There will, however, be no separate Raw With Wraps division offered at Open (Equipped) Nationals.

State and American records will be established for this division. Record standards will be set using the existing current raw records in the squat, bench, deadlift and total as of January 1, 2021. Raw with Wraps competitors must beat this record standard to be awarded a new Raw With Wraps record.

More details can be located here.

In Closing

We are excited to bring these four new categories to our members and offer more competition space for everyone. Our top priority remains, as it has been since our founding as the American Drug Free Powerlifting Association in 1981, to provide the premier drug free, fair play powerlifting platform in the United States.

In addition to our Mission and vision, we are also committed to upholding our Code of Conduct – especially nondiscrimination, professionalism, and respect. Our organization is a true microcosm of our great country and even through our differences, we remain family – it is what makes the sport of powerlifting so great.

2020 has been a challenging year for all of us, and we remain forever grateful to the athletes and for the hard work and dedication of our volunteers, meet directors, state chairs, referees and countless others who have helped and continue to help USA Powerlifting.

Questions?

The published rules for these new categories are published under the USA Powerlifting Rules & Bylaws page on our website.

Please read and review each of the published criteria for the new categories; links are placed under each in this announcement. If you are unable to find the answer to your question, please submit your question here: [Submit Questions]

• Lifters who achieve the 63kg QT can lift in the 63kg class go up to 69kg
• Lifters who achieve the 72kg QT can go down to 69kg or up to 76kg
• Lifters who achieve the 84kg QT can lift in the 84kg class or could go down to 76kg class

Qualifying Totals for the new weight classes will be coming for the beginning of the new year.

We have created a webpage dedicated to the ongoing updates for COVID-19.  Please go here: https://www.usapowerlifting.com/covid-19-updates/

Regional High-level Summary:

• 8 Regions
• Regionals held October-November
• Only States within the Region can compete in their designated Regionals
• Regionals will be designated as ‘National’ level meets but state referees will be allowed to judge (as we now do with the American Open)
• A Jury of National Referees will be optional, but highly recommended for 2016. (Juries will be mandatory at all Regionals, beginning 2017)
• Regionals will serve as qualifiers for Raw Nationals and NAPF Regionals
• Top 2 placings in the Open class will automatically qualify for Nationals, regardless of whether they meet the qualifying total or not.
• Elite lifters who have already qualified for Nationals can compete at Regionals only as a guest lifter
• To compete at a Regional meet, the lifter must have competed at least one other USA Powerlifting meet on or after January 1 of the previous year (no qualifying total is necessary)

Regions:

USA Powerlifting Region Map

Bid application deadlines and award dates:

• Regional Bid Application
• Bids to be sent electronically to National Office by March 5, 2016*
• Presentation of bids will be reviewed by the Regional Committee
• Regional Committee Chair to present to Executive Committee
• Bids to be awarded no later than March 25, 2016

*Bids will not be taken for the Central Region for 2016 as USA Powerlifting will be running a joint meet with USAW.

Implementation Plan

The introduction of Regionals to USA Powerlifting will be a three [3] year process to full implementation.

Year 1 (2016)

The first year is the time we will introduce the concept of Regionals. coque iphone 6 s kawaii It will include the timeframe regionals will be held, starting with 2016. This will allow lifters to start competing in Regionals and will serve as their automatic qualifier for the 2017 Nationals if they take 1-2 in the Open class at Regionals, despite whether or not they hit the qualifying total. 2016 will also help states and meet directors to prepare their 2017 State Meet schedule to align with our new schedule.

Year 2 (2017)

The second year will have the schedule implemented with State meets behind held in the first half of the year and Regional will already be set with the Oct-Nov timeline that was initiated in 2016. Jurys will now be required at all Regional Meets. coque iphone x mariniere

Year 3 (2018)

State and Regional meets will be in place on the schedule. coque caca iphone 7 Additionally, we propose to move Raw Nationals to late Jan/early February of 2018 so that it falls better in line with the State > Regional > National plan. coque hello kitty iphone 8 This will also allow Raw Nationals to be held the same year as its respective Raw Worlds.