Although the sport of para-powerlifting has been a part of the Paralympics since 1984, its prominence as a mainstay of Canadian sporting culture has been limited.

But a Calgary-based organization aims to change that, through new initiatives to build the sport through new competitors, new sporting officials, and new partnerships with gyms.

PARA Power Lifting Canada Association held their inaugural camp and competition in the city on Oct. 25, with the aim to develop the first formal structure ahead of a four-year strategy ahead of the 2028 Paralympic Games.

Throughout the history of the sport, Canada has won three medals, although all in the 1980s.

“The goal, and for this reason it’s called the powerlifting development camp, is we didn’t want the emphasis to be on competition. All of the athletes here are here for a learning opportunity. They’re learning ‘what can I do?’ How am I going to be engaged in what I need to understand to be better in my sport,” said Performance Director and Alberta Sports Hall of Famer Ozzie Sawicki.

“It’s such a good learning opportunity, and it’s not just a learning opportunity for the athletes. It’s a learning opportunity for a lot of the parents that have come along with the young athletes. They don’t know what they don’t know, and they’re going, ‘what is this all about, and how is my child going to fit into this?'”

Para-powerlifting competition is also about preparing athletes for the world stage

The weekend’s competition, held on Sunday, was equally about that development side of the sport he said.

The low-stress environment of the camp, but with the real aspects of an international level competition in play, were designed to be a way to train athletes about the rigours of competitions so that when they reach the world stage level, they’re focused on their performance and not their anxiety.

“On Sunday, we’re inviting a variety of VIPs to attend. We’ve invited people from different walks of life, whether it’s the political area, the corporate area, and so on. It’s just for them to come and see it, come and experience it, and from my experience, having been involved as long as I have, I find that once people come to a para-sport event, they rarely don’t get involved,” said Sawicki.

“Very few people know what para-powerlifting is all about. I’m guessing if you talk to 10 people, nine and a half would say I’ve never seen it. So this is a coming out opportunity for the sport.”

Para Powerlifting involves athletes doing bench presses, performing what the Canadian Paralympics Committee calls “the ultimate test of upper body strength.”

Athletes compete to lift the most kilograms, while lifting in perfect form, with anything less being disqualified.

Calgarian Jenna Reed-Cote, who has competed in para-powerlifting for the past two years, said that difference can literally be by millimetres of form.

The camp was one way of making the sport more accessible to the wider sport interested public, she said.

“Any sport can be really exciting for people to become aware of… if people are going to watch it as audience members, they don’t know that it’s off by a millimetre, it’s a no lift. So, they can’t get excited about it, because it’s like one bad lift after another unless you’re able to be aware of that one millimetre,” Reed-Cote said.

Training officials and building interest a part of the three-day camp

Building an understanding of the discipline that athletes put on display was one part of building that interest, she said. But the other way was connecting the world of para sports to that of able-bodied sports.

Reed-Cote began her sporting journey as a competitive karate athlete for 14 years, and it was her coach that encouraged her to consider para-powerlifting.

“I had the best coach from age four and up, and she never had any qualms about me doing things differently, because it wasn’t going to take away from what I was actually able to do. I ended up in the ICU for six weeks with six neurosurgeries. During that and after I got out, my karate coach said it’s time for you to start training for the para-powerlifting for the Paralympics,” she said.

“It actually ended up helping me recover having that goal in mind.”

Sawicki said that one of the big differences between para-powerlifting and other Paralympic sports is the classification system in place for athletes.

That classification helps to understand the different disabilities exist between the athletes, how they can be classified, so that they can compete, he said.

“There’s classifier training that’s going on here, there’s technical official training that’s going on here, and a lot of those things are the background that people don’t see. Without those knowledge bases, the sport doesn’t happen,” Sawicki said.

The camp provided training on classification to officials over the weekend and allowed them to put those newfound skills to the test during the competition.

Athletes from across the United States and Canada were also in attendance at the camp.

“It’s nice to bring athletes from across the country together so that they can be on the same page with the consistent knowledge of this is what’s being done, here’s the story, and here’s how I can be involved, so that when they leave this camp—they know that come November— we’re going to start to see a plan come forward that involves us, that we feel like we’re part of it,” Sawicki said.

Going forward, said Sawicki, said that he hoped that the camp would become a yearly event that would eventually grow into its own internationally recognized competition on the paralifting calendar.

“A lot of people look at the Paralympic Games as that quadrennial four-year target. But there are a lot of things that happen in between that. This is sort of the annual get-together, where there’s an opportunity to kind of compare notes, see where we’re at,” he said.