St. Louis gets ready for USA's biggest ever Para powerlifting event

St. Louis will host USA's first international Para powerlifting competition in almost 15 years* when Paralympic and world champions join the region's strongest athletes in July at the 2022 World Para Powerlifting Parapan American Open Championships. 

St. Louis 2022 will take place at the Logan University Campus in Chesterfield from 8-11 July marking the first edition of the Americas Regional Championships in three years - Bogota, Colombia hosted the last one in 2018 with 150 athletes from 27 nations.  

The competition is open to athletes from all over the world and will include 20 individual medal events and one mixed team event. Pan American athletes (North America, South America and Central America) must participate in the St. Louis 2022 Parapan American Championships as part of the qualification path to the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games.

“To be the first to host such an event in the U.S. is an honour for USA Para Powerlifting, Logan University and the greater St. Louis community,” said Kelley Humphries-Mascoll, Executive Director of Paralympic operations at Logan University, the home of USA Para Powerlifting.

“People with physical disabilities deserve high quality, organised, competitive athletic opportunities from youth sports to elite Paralympic competition, and we look forward to highlighting this growing sport and celebrating Para athletes,” Humphries-Mascoll added.

More information about St. Louis 2022 can be found on the World Para Powerlifting Events page and the Logan University website. 

The USA competition will be the second of four Regional Championships taking place this year. Pyeongtaek, South Korea is set to host the Asia Oceania Open Championships in June. 

Home of the last World Para Powerlifting Championships in 2021, Georgian capital Tbilisi will host the European Open Championships in September. The African Open Championships is set to take place in the same month in host city yet to be announced.

* The article initially was amended on 25 February to correct the information that St. Louis was the first international Para powerlifting event to take place in USA. The country has hosted the 2003 Parapan American Championships in McAlester and the 2008 IWAS World Junior Games in Piscataway.