The 2025 USAWA Nationals is less than one month away and things are looking great for a fantastic meet.
I wanted to say a massive THANK YOU to everyone who has registered so far, all memberships are current and we are excited to see old friends and meet new ones as well. Here are 5 quick points to remember as we inch closer to Nationals.
1. First a HUGE THANK YOU too our sponsors of the 2025 USAWA Nationals!
Arm Assassin Strength Shop for sponsoring the Saxon Deadlift event, Cerberus Strength USA for sponsoring the Dinnie Lift event and Weight It Out for providing weights for the platform! Thank you to each of these companies and we greatly appreciate it. Lifters please remember these fine companies when making your strength equipment purchases, they are supporting us and let’s support them with our business.
2. JULY 1 is the deadline to enter the 2025 USAWA Nationals, that’s just a few short days. If you are considering lifting in the meet, it will be phenomenal and we would love to have you lift with us.
Don’t wait SIGN UP TODAY! Just click on the link to enter right away….
3. Referees at Nationals! We currently have 12 referees signed up to register at the Nationals. If you are a current USAWA referee and would like to referee at the meet, please let me now ASAP. All referees will need to wear a blue polo shirt with shorts or pants. Thank you to all referees for being willing to support the USAWA with your time and effort.
4. Awards at the 2025 Nationals will be given by weight class first and then age groups. The best lifter awards came in this week and look nice. We will have a Best Lifter award for Overall, Junior (20 & under), Senior (20-40) and Masters (40 and over). Plus, we will be awarding the USAWA NATIONAL TEAM CHAMPIONS!. We currently have 8 teams(USAWA clubs) signed up for Nationals, this looks like a record turnout for teams lifting at Nationals. The scoring will be done by taking the top 3 from each team and adding their total points together. Teams can only score with present members. As an example, if a team has 2 members present at Nationals they will have 2 scoring lifters. We have a very nice Eagle sculpture to award to the winning Team at the 2025 USAWA Nationals.
5. The Bourbon Distillery tour at 2 pm on Friday at Southern Kentucky Distillery has close to 20 people attending so far. If you would like to see and taste a little Kentucky Bourbon please let me know ASAP, so we can add you to the distillery tour. It’s a beautiful location less than 15 minutes from the Baymont Inn.
Following the distillery tour will be the USAWA National Meeting at Angie’s Family Restaurant in Albany, Kentucky. Please be at Angie’s Restaurant between 5 and 5:30 pm to get your order in or eat from the buffet. All attendees are responsible for their own food costs. The National meeting will begin at 6 pm, please come to the national meeting and support the USAWA.
John Strangeway in the People’s Deadlift in winning his 2019 title
Meet announcement
KCSTRONGMAN is excited to announce the fourteenth installment of the Old Time Strongman Championship. This will be the eleventh time this meet has been held at our facility, with the first three being held in Kirksville, hosted by Thom VanVleck’s JWC club. Ours is a no-frills facility, and a no frills meet. It is a place where big hitters get together to lift heavy weight. There is no climate control other than opening a door and some windows (we do have a big fan, but then you might not be able to hear the down command). The latrine comes in the form of an outhouse out back. We dust out the spider webs and knock down any wasp nests before you get there. The weights might be rusty, but they get heavy enough, anyhow.
Since its inception, there have been seven men’s division winners, and five women’s. Chad Ullom and Phoebe Todd have won four apiece. Who out there is ready to take up the challenge and vie for the title of 2025 Old Time Strongman Champion? We hope to have a fantastic turnout. Details below:
IAWA President, Paul Barette, recently announced and invited lifters to participate in the 2025 IAWA World Postal Championships. Once again, honouring our IAWA friend Andy Goddard.
Contested lifts are those of Day 1 of the IAWA World Championships. One Hand Clean & Jerk (IAWA B25, USAWA A9) Clean & Push Press (IAWA B31, USAWA A18) Pullover & Push Press (IAWA B41, USAWA A36) Straddle Deadlift (IAWA C12, USAWA B19)
As a newcomer to All-Round Weightlifting, USAWA and IAWA, I never got the opportunity to meet Andy Goddard. Andy came to All-Round lifting after battling stomach cancer that ended his Army career and nearly took his life. He was a fierce competitor that could deadlift 3X his weight in several deadlift variations. After lifting in the 2008 World Championships, feeling a little off, he went to the hospital to discover that the cancer had returned and spread. In 2009, the World Postal was promoted by Steve Gardner in Andy’s memory. This tradition has been continued during Al Myer’s 12 years as IAWA President and now under Paul Barette’s leadership. It is worth giving Steve Gardner’s story a read.
This is the first of three annual events run by IAWA. Competing in the World Postal Championship, the World Championship and the Gold Cup in the same year earns athletes the Commitment Award.
We are now a short 5 weeks away from the 2025 USAWA Nationals in Albany, Kentucky. I wanted to pass along a massive THANK YOU to all the lifters who are attending this year’s Nationals. It will be a great event and a lot of fun. As of today, all registered lifters for the 2025 USAWA have current memberships… THANK YOU. This is always a huge burden for any meet director and having all the lifters have current memberships will make things go smoothly. Here are a few items I would like to share bout the upcoming 2025 USAWA Nationals.
1. We currently have the largest USAWA Nationals field since 2003 with 27 lifters(see roster below). We lost a couple of lifters for various reasons. A breakdown of the lifters shows we currently have lifters from 10 states and 2 countries, this should be very exciting. If you know of anyone who would like to lift at the 2025 USAWA Nationals please have them register ASAP. The entry deadline is July 1st and will be enforced. I would love to see this meet go over 30 lifters. We are heading the right direction and let’s keep moving forward.
2. CALL FOR REFEREES! If you are interested in refereeing at the 2025 USAWA Nationals please let me know ASAP. All referees will be required to wear a blue polo while officiating, shorts or pants are fine. The blue polos do not have to have a logo on them, just be blue for uniformity of officials. We want this to be as professional as possible. Referees will not be lifting in the flights they are officiating. This will help streamline the meet. Please let me know ASAP if you want to referee at nationals and THANK YOU!
3. There will be over 40 chairs available to sit in at the meet location, but if you want to bring your own chair, please feel free to do so.
4. The local newspaper, the Clinton County News, will be doing a pre-Nationals and post-Nationals article about the 2025 USAWA Nationals! Also, if you would like to have your hometown/local news paper do an article about your participation at the 2025 USAWA Nationals, please let me know. I will make you sound great and write a flattering article for your paper or have your local newspaper give me a call @ 606 688-2600 and we can do an interview about your tremendous lifting at Nationals!
5. On Friday, July 18, the Southern Kentucky Distillery Tour is set for 2 pm and the national meeting is set for 5:30 pm at Angie’s Family Restaurant. Please let me know if you are attending the national meeting and distillery tour so we can have an accurate head count, thank you.
The next update will include flights and award divisions. At the moment, awards will be given in weight classes and age group winners. The Men’s & Women’s Overall Best lifter will be awarded as well. Men’s & Women’s Overall Master and Junior Best Lifter will be recognized as well. All lifters will be receiving medals for lifting at the USAWA Nationals.
