The 2024 Paralympic Games will be concluding in a few days, and Google has been celebrating various Paralympic sports with their creative doodles. On August 30th, they created a Google Doodle for wheelchair basketball, and now they are honouring powerlifting at the Games. (Full Coverage | More Sports News)
The visual used in the doodle shows a bird doing powerlifting with another baby bird sitting on the weights.
Speaking of the sport itself, China have won three medals including two golds. India are yet to win their first medal in the powerlifting at Paris Paralympics 2024.
History of Powerlifting
The origins of powerlifting can be traced back to the traditions of strength training, which date back to the ancient Mayan and ancient Persian civilizations.
The concept of powerlifting can be traced back to ancient Greece, where men would lift stones to demonstrate their strength and masculinity. The modern sport of powerlifting originated in the United Kingdom and the United States during the 1950s.
The International Powerlifting Federation (IPF) was established in November 1972. The first IPF World Championships took place in York in November 1973.
Powerlifting at Paralympics
In 1984, powerlifting was included in the Tokyo Paralympic Games for men with spinal cord injuries. At the 2000 Paralympic Games in Sydney, women were also allowed to participate in powerlifting. In both cases, men and women were permitted to compete in all 10 weight classes of powerlifting.
The para-powerlifting is the ultimate test of upper body strength, with athletes competing in the discipline of bench press.
In this event, competitors must lower the bar to their chest, hold it motionless, and then press it upwards to arms-length with locked elbows.
Each athlete is given three attempts, and the winner is the one who lifts the highest number of kilograms.
