USAWA

I have been involved with All-Round Weightlifting since 2022 and over the past four years, I have heard plenty of stories about how the sport is changing too fast or the sport is stuck in the past.  How we are alienating athletes with too many “crazy” lifts or we are not approving enough new lifts.  I have heard stories about the glory years when people traveled all over the country and world to keep the long-standing tradition of old-time weightlifters alive.  I have also heard that a certain decision to change something or not change something will be the death of all-round weightlifting.

To steal from and then misquote Mark Twain, the reports of the death of All-Round Weightlifting have been greatly exaggerated.

The 2026 International All-Round Weightlifting Association (IAWA) World Postal featured (46) athletes.  Including (20) from England, (18) from the United States, (7) from Australia, and (1) from Canada.

Twenty athletes are descending on Lebanon, PA for the 2026 IAWA World Championship including the reigning best male and reigning best junior female.  Red Rose Lifting and Powerhouse Gym will both have two lifters.  Frank’s Barbell Club and Habecker’s Gym will have eight and four lifters respectively.  Clark’s, High Country Vigour and Dino Gym will also have athletes in attendance.

International season should finish up with the Gold Cup in Eastbourne and the Old Time Strongman World Postal.

IAWA.UK has (11) events on their calendar plus the IAWA events.  The 2026 British All-Round Championship featured (14) athletes.  England is hosting the Gold Cup this year.

All-Round Weightlifting Federation of Australia has (5) events on their 2026 calendar and will compete in IAWA events as they are able.  Australia will be hosting the World Championship in 2027.

All-Round Weightlifting New Zealand still has an active Facebook Page and Cliff Harvey hosted the All-Round Weightlifting New Zealand Open in 2025.

The 2026 USAWA National Championship featured (19) athletes in Columbia, MO and plans are underway for the 2027 National Championship.  (31) contests were sanctioned by the USAWA for 2026.  The 2026 membership is now 68 athletes.  USAWA has a stable board of directors and special assignment directors.

I have also heard mentions of All-Round in five different podcasts over the past couple of years including The Grip Show, Beyond the Bend, Massenomics, Health Oddities and Iron Culture.

Will we see All-Round Weightlifting in the 2028 Olympics? No. However, Open Powerlifting has ranked over 500,000 athletes and Powerlifting has yet to be invited to the Olympics.

Will All-Round go the way of the International Steel Strandpulling Organization or The Association of Oldtime Barbell & Strongman?  I am not sure.  It will not be in 2026.  Since being established in 1987, many individuals have carried the torch.  Those of us involved today will likely not be involved forty years from now.  For my part, I want to help All-Round Weightlifting grow while staying true to its values.

This year, the points were so close between two clubs, I chose to just award co-Clubs of the year rather than pick a winner and runner-up or flip a coin. For the first club, when you think of the Denver Colorado area, you think of outdoor activities, skiing, the Colorado Rockies (beautiful mountains and baseball), the Avalanche, Nuggets, and Broncos. One certainly can’t get lost when the mountains are to the west! And the area is famous for Denver omelets, Coors beer, and good Mexican style food. This is the home of High Country Vigour, a club led by Sanjiv Gupta, our 2026 Leadership Award winner. High Country Vigour has become our western hub as they’ve volunteered to be a location for the USAWA Heavy Lift Championships. They’ve revived some older events such as the Team Lift Championship and proposed some new events as well (e.g., ground-to-Overhead Challenge, Carnival in the Cul-de-Sac). They participate in remote meets and allow remote competition in their own meets. Some of their members have proposed new lifts, and they are active in generating interest in the team and repetition lifts. Pictures from their meets show they enjoy competing together.  Congratulations to a relatively new club High Country Vigour as the 2026 co-Club of the Year winner. They certainly live up to the name!

The second club is one that has been with the USAWA for a long time. And when you think of Lebanon, PA, you think of the beautiful rolling terrain of the Appalachians, Pennsylvania Dutch Country, and Ivy League universities. It is not far from Philadelphia, the ‘Cradle of Liberty’. You think of Philly steak sandwiches and Hershey PA (Ok, maybe I’m the one that thinks of food). It is the home territory of the Phillies, Eagles, 76ers, and Flyers. But, you also should think of Habecker’s Gym, which is led by one of the great Hall-of-Famers in the USAWA, Denny Habecker. Denny sits atop the USAWAs all-time individual record list. He served the USAWA as president for many years and has been in charge of designing and compiling the quarterly postal competitions. He has many members of his club spread across Pennsylvania and has even attracted some new members from my old stomping grounds, Upstate New York! Denny is the original USAWA ‘road warrior’, frequently making meets across the USAWA. Habecker’s Gym members participate in remote competitions as well and they will be the host of the IAWA World Championship in less than two weeks. Congratulations to Habeckers’ Gym as the 2026 co-Club of the Year winner!