Powerlifting

Powerlifting

Powerlifting for athletes with physical disabilities made its debut at the Tokyo 1964 Paralympic Games and was originally called “weightlifting”.

At first, only men with spinal-cord injuries could participate, but today the competition is open to all athletes with cerebral palsy, spinal-cord injuries, lower-limb amputees and les autres who meet the minimal disability criteria.

The sport is now practiced in more than 100 countries, and women competed in it for the first time in 2000.

The bench press is the sport’s single discipline, with 10 different categories based on body weight. The athletes are given three attempts and the winner is the who lifts the highest number of kilograms.