United States Powerlifting Association (USPA) President Steve Denison and USPA Executive Vice President Mike Tronske released a statement yesterday that announced the withdrawal of all sanctions for 16 events between the months of September 2020 and January 2021.
Here is the list of those events, all in the USPA East Region:
- 9/12/20 — USPA 4th Virginia Is For Lifters!, Vienna, VA
- 9/19/20 — Shark City Barbell, Norfolk, VA
- 9/26/20 — 7th IBC Classic & West Virginia State Championships
- 10/3/20 — 6th Annual Hickory Classic, Hickory, NC
- 10/9-10/11/20 — North American Championships, Hickory, NC
- 10/24/20 — Maryland State Championship, Frederick, MD
- 10/31/20 — Drug Tested Grit Classic, Stevensville, MD
- 10/31/20 — USPA Armageddon, Florence, KY
- 11/7/2020 — Virginia State Championships, Lexington, VA
- 11/14/2020 — Drug Tested NOVA Fall Classic, Vienna, VA
- 11/21/20 — USPA 2nd Annual Rhino Smash, Fayetteville, NC
- 12/5/20 — Kentucky State Championships, Louisville, KY
- 12/12/20 — USPA Odin’s Fury III, Virginia Beach, VA
- 12/12/20 — USPA Drug Tested West Virginia State Championship, Fairmont, WV
- 1/9/21 — 6th Annual Raleigh Ruckus, Fuquay-Varina, NC
- 1/23/21 — USPA Drug Tested North Carolina State Championship, Hickory, NC
USPA’s event calendar has already been updated to reflect these changes.
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[Related: 2020 powerlifting events canceled or postponed due to Coronavirus]
The withdrawal of sanctioning for these events came following the USPA Drug Tested National Championships this past weekend when a USPA meet director, United States Powerlifting Coalition (USPC) President Johnny Layne, “announced via social media that he’s leaving the USPA and forming his own powerlifting federation.” (Quote from USPA’s statement, linked above.)
USPA’s statement said this action was a “direct violation of his contractual obligations and agreement to protect proprietary and privileged information of our lifters, but was made without the USPA’s knowledge.”
The statement also eluded to “a very problematic incident” that “precipitated [Layne’s] desire to leave the USPA”. No specifics were mentioned as to what that incident was other than that “on June 8, 2020, the USPA National Office was first apprised of incontrovertible information relating to a member of Johnny’s family that required the Executive Committee to act immediately.”
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[Related: 2020 weightlifting events canceled or postponed due to Coronavirus]
Layne posted a statement on USPC’s Instagram page where he shared the “member of Johnny’s family” being referred to by the USPA is his wife, Mindy. According to Layne’s statement, Mindy was deactivated “as an international judge” by the USPA due to the revelation that “she had a relationship with a teenager that was under the age of consent” 16 years ago.
USPA has “referred out for further action since there are several issues of concern.”
Feature image from USPA® Powerlifting’s Instagram page: @uspapower
