Powerlifting athletes compete in a grueling triathlon of human strength. Three disciplines challenge men and women to lift multiples of their body weight to a prescribed sequence: lowering themselves from a loaded and erect position to a squat and getting back. Or, lying on a bench, bringing the load from arm extension down to the chest and back up! Or raising the weights off the floor and assuming an erect position! It is the ultimative test of strength for athletes of all sizes. Some of the strongest weighing in at just over 44 kg.

In the women's lightweight event (44 to 52 kg) of 2005 Duisburg, Yukako Fukushima (JPN) had a shot at another bronze. She had won one in Akita four years earlier. But after the final deadlift she lost out narrowly to Chen Wei-ling (TPE).

Both athletes faced off again at the 2007 World Championships in Soelden, Austria, where Chen Wei-ling won the title ahead of Yukako. Who knows, the two may well continue their duel all the way to The World Games 2009? Powerlifting will be a draw in Kaohsiung: a number of lifters from the host nation are among the favorites for gold in some of the weight classes. The NSYSU Sun Yat-Sen Hall, the sport's venue in Kaohsiung, should be sold out on both competition days.

 Powerlifting at The World Games