OpenPowerlifting: Most Recent Lifts by Competitors

Motivation

Powerlifting is a strength sport where participants compete to lift the heaviest weight. Competitors compete within weight classes, so their opponents are around the same weight as them. The sport consists of three different lifts: Squat, Bench, and Deadlift.

Squat lifts require lifters to squat so that their hips are below their knees and lift the weight to a specific depth. Bench lifts are done while the lifter is lying on a bench. Bench lifters start with the bar weight being held in the air and must lower the bar down to their body. Once the bar touches their body, lifters wait for the command to lift the bar back into the air with their elbows fully extended. Deadlifting, like squats, start with the lifter standing up. The lifter must lift the bar off the ground and get into the position where their shoulders are back and knees are locked. Competitors are overseen by three judges who determine whether the lift follows the rules of the events. If a judge believes the lifter followed the rules, they will turn on a white light. In order for a lift to count, competitors must receive at least two white lights.

Data

There are two datasets provided - one for male lifters and one for females. Both are samples taken from the OpenPowerlifting project. You may download a copy of the full data at https://openpowerlifting.gitlab.io/opl-csv/bulk-csv.html.

The data sets were created using the code available in openpl_initial_wrangle.qmd. Details are also below.

Sampling Process

This process was used (separately) for both male and female lifters.

• Filtered the full dataset to include only:
  • Drug-tested lifters (Tested == "Yes")
  • Lifters who competed in the full event (Event == "SBD")
  • Those using standard equipment (Raw or Single-ply)
  • Lifters with valid placements (excluding disqualified or incomplete performances)
  • Complete cases for age and best lift values
• Selected the most recent meet for each lifter by:
  • Grouping by lifter name
  • Sorting by competition date (most recent first)
  • Taking the first observation per lifter
• For each AgeClass:
  • If 500 or more lifters, took a random sample of 500
  • If fewer than 500 lifters, included all available lifters
• Removed extraneous columns and kept only key performance and demographic variables for classroom analysis

Variable Descriptions

Variable	Description
Name	Powerlifter’s name
Age	Age of the lifter at the time of the meet
AgeClass	Reported age class (e.g., “13-15”, “24-25”, “80+”)
BodyweightKg	Body weight of the lifter in kilograms at weigh-in
Squat	Best squat weight from the lifter’s three attempts (in kg)
Bench	Best bench press from the lifter’s three attempts (in kg)
Deadlift	Best deadlift from the lifter’s three attempts (in kg)
TotalKg	Sum of best squat, bench press, and deadlift (in kg)
Place	Lifter’s placement in the meet (numeric)
Dots	Bodyweight-adjusted score (modern Wilks alternative)
Wilks	Traditional Wilks score
Glossbrenner	Score used by GPC-affiliated federations
Goodlift	IPF GL points (IPF performance standard score)
Date	Date of the meet (format: yyyy-mm-dd)

: openpl_sample_female.csv, openpl_sample_male.csv

Questions

1. Graphically explore the relationship between age and best deadlift.
2. Estimate the age at which peak performance occurs.
3. Combine datasets and compare male vs female for the different lifts.

References

Open Powerlifting Data Service

The data set for this module was extracted from OpenPowerlifting Data Service. It contains over 3.6 million observations over 40 different variables containing the classifications and totals for an individual lifter.