One recognised international federation or governing body.
The only other “sport” I can think of with multiple federations or governing bodies that isn’t boxing might be professional wrestling. When we are dealing with a sport or competitive model that generates large incomes then the existence of different bodies are almost inevitable since they survive as businesses. Powerlifting does not make money much like other sports such as netball or weightlifting where the grass roots and commercialism of the sport are limited. As such we need to strive for the olympic or commonwealth model to be really successful in our own limited manner as such we need to seek IOC recognition, as an olympic sport to achieve this we really need to drop the laundry list of federations.
Shun performance enhancing drugs for good
Non tested federations should be looked down upon and where possible sniped. I will catch a bit of heat for this I am sure but let us be honest the general public hate the use of steroids or any performance enhancing drug for that matter and it degrades any sport it touches in the public eye. If we lived in a different society I might advocate our current model however it is doing nothing for our sport those achieving “all time” records in our sport under non drug tested conditions and lax judging should receive no recognition. Whilst they might train as hard as everyone else they do not require drugs to do the sport, nor do they require lax judging as a collective we should disregard their performances for the easy option they really are. If you are really the strongest ever prove it in the same rules as everyone else without the aid of chemicals. We oporate an ameture sport that is person driven, there is no need for cheating.
Kill the equipment
Usain bolt should run bare foot said the same old tired fucking argument every time this comes up. Lets face it a bench shirt or wraps and squat suit can lead up to 20-40% increased performance in our sport as such we are unique in what we do. Swimming banned the use of high tech swimming suits before the 2012 games because they were deemed to provide an unfair advantage they were maybe taking 2-3 seconds off world record times nothing compared to raw vs equipped powerlifting. We live in a weird world in powerlifting where the equipment manufactures provide a lot of the sponsorship for the bigger organisations this is only because we are so unmarketable because of the clusterfuck that is untested and equipped lifting. If we promoted a natural unequipped athlete and shunned the other activities as a weird niche we would be so much more marketable as a collective. If running shoes made sprinters go 6-7 seconds over 100m they would be banned immediately.
Whilst this list of three is in no doubt controversial I am in no doubt that it would improve our sport massively both in participation and marketability. Drop the bench shirt, leave off the needle and compete in an IOC recognised federation with some actual competition if you want to help us grow this sport.
Marc