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IPF and after

The International Powerlifting Federation was formed in November of 1972. The inaugural IPF World Championships was held in York on November of 1973. There were 47 entrants: one Swedish athlete, one Puerto Rican athlete, two Canadian athletes, one West Indian athlete, eight British athletes, and 34 Americans. 1974 was the first time that teams were selected in advance. With 74 entrants, this was the largest World Championships so far. The 52 kg class was introduced, and nine lifters entered. In 1975, the World Championships was held outside America for the first time, at the town hall in Birmingham, hosted by Vic Mercer. 82 lifters entered.

The establishment of the IPF in 1973 spurred the establishment of the EPF (European Powerlifting Federation) in May 1977. Since it was closely associated with bodybuilding and women had been competing as bodybuilders for years, powerlifting was swiftly opened to them. The first U.S. national championships for women were held in 1978 and the IPF added women's competition in 1980. In the US, the Amateur Sports Act of 1978 required that each Olympic or potential Olympic sport must have its own national governing body by November 1980. As a result, the AAU lost control of every amateur sport. The USPF was founded in 1980 as the new national governing body for American powerlifting. In 1981, the American Drug Free Powerlifting Association (ADFPA), led by Brother Bennett, became the first federation to break away from the USPF, citing the need to implement effective drug testing in the sport. Meanwhile, the IPF was moving towards adopting drug testing at international meets, and requiring member nations to implement drug testing at national meets as well. In 1982, drug testing was introduced to the IPF men's international championship, although the USPF championships that year did not have drug testing.

The IPF's push for drug testing was resisted by some American lifters, and in 1982 Larry Pacifico and Ernie Frantz founded the American Powerlifting Federation (APF), which advertised its categorical opposition to all drug testing.

In 1984, powerlifting was included into the Tokyo Paralympic Games for men with spinal cord injuries. At the 2000 Paralympic Games in Sydney, women were invited to participate in powerlifting. Both men and women were allowed to compete in all 10 weight classes of powerlifting.

In 1987, the American Powerlifting Association (APA) and World Powerlifting Alliance (WPA) were formed by Scott Taylor. The APA offer both drug tested and untested categories in most of their competitions. As of 2024, the WPA has over 60 affiliate nations.

The USPF failed to conform to IPF demands and was expelled from the international body in 1997, with the ADFPA, now named USA Powerlifting (USAPL), taking its place. Despite the trend towards federations, each with their own rules and standards of performance, some powerlifters have attempted to bring unity to the sport. For example, 100% RAW promoted unequipped competition and merged with another federation, Anti-Drug Athletes United (ADAU), in 2013. The Revolution Powerlifting Syndicate (RPS), founded by Gene Rychlak in 2011, was considered a move towards unity, as the RPS breaks the tradition of charging lifters membership fees to a specific federation in addition to entry fees for each competition. Some meet promoters have sought to bring together top lifters from different federations, outside existing federations' hierarchy of local, regional, national and international meets; a prominent example of this is the Raw Unity Meet (RUM), held annually since 2007.