USAWA

By Eric Todd

Description of the Courage Award is as follows:

This goes to an individual who shows the courage to overcome an obstacle in order to return to competition. This may be a comeback from an injury, or just having to deal with difficult personal issues but still shows the courage to compete in the USAWA.

Randy Smith is the deserving recipient of our courage award for this year past.  He was close to making it to nationals last year, after just having been afflicted with the covid virus.  He just missed it, but made it to Clark’s Birthday Weekend just a couple months later.  His wife also was having some health issues, but Randy managed to take care of her while attending Worlds in October, and then made the long journey back to Columbia, MO from Michigan for another Nationals this year.  Navigating his health and taking care of his wife, while fingding the time and will to still compete goes right along with our definition of courage.  Congrats, Randy!  Well deserved!

 

By Eric Todd

This award is described as such:

This goes to an individual who shows the courage to overcome an obstacle in order to return to competition. This may be a comeback from an injury, or just having to deal with difficult personal issues but still shows the courage to compete in the USAWA.

For the second year in a row, the runner-up is Joe Garcia.  He won last year for having survived a near death experience with covid, and wins this year by way of his long recovery and return to the platform.  We has gone from being on a ventilator in a hospital bed, to doing pushups on his knees and walking around the house on oxygen, back to lifting, and ultimately making it to the national championship meet.  The road was a long one, and it took a great amount of courage to complete that journey.  Congrats Joe!  Well deserved!

By Beth Skwarecki

This is the first in a series of articles about the basics of USAWA. First up: how to join.

Membership in USAWA is necessary to participate in competitions and to set records. (Officials also need to keep up their membership to keep their certification current.) Fortunately, it’s cheap! For just $25, you become a member and you get to do the postals at no additional charge. Many of the in-person competitions are also free to members.

USAWA is the IAWA-affiliated organization for the USA. If you live in or near the UK, you should join IAWA-UK. If you live in another country, you should join your closest organization as an associate member. For example, if you live in Canada, you can join USAWA as an associate member. You can’t set US national records but you can participate in meets and you can set IAWA world records.

You only need to do two things to join:

1. Fill out the membership application form, which asks for your contact information and what club you are a member of (if any–it’s okay to be unaffiliated), and includes a waiver stating you understand that you may be subject to drug testing. If you are under 21, your parent or guardian must also sign. You can either print out this form, fill it out, and mail it; or use the new online membership application.
2. Send us $25, either by enclosing a check if you are mailing your application, or by PayPal if you are all “fancy” and “modern.”

If you’d like to learn more about the organization you are joining, the USAWA Rulebook contains the bylaws, the procedures by which competitions are run, and the rules of all the lifts.

More information on membership, including membership and meet sanctions, is on the Forms and Applications page.

That’s it–now you are all set. Membership expires at the end of the calendar year, and is not prorated. So renew every January to get your money’s worth.