COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado (August 16, 2018) -- Olympic Weightlifting, whose roots span centuries, is poised to enter a new era as USA Weightlifting will host the largest Olympic Weightlifting competition in history next month at the 2018 Nike American Open Series 3 powered by Rogue Fitness in Las Vegas, Nevada. Registrations closed this afternoon, and a record 1,651 athletes registered to compete. This surpasses the previous record held by USA Weightlifting’s 2018 American Open Series 1, where 968 athletes registered.

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The American Open Series 3 will span four jam packed days of lifting, from Thursday, September 13 to Sunday, September 16 and will happen at the Westgate Las Vegas Resort and Casino. Tickets are available now at www.weightliftingtickets.com

“We’re ready to tackle the challenge of hosting the world’s largest weightlifting competition,” said Pedro Meloni, USA Weightlifting’s Events Director. “Las Vegas is just the place to do it, and we hope fans from across the country will join us for nonstop competition from the nation’s best lifters.”

A preliminary competition schedule will be available at USAWeightlifting.org by Saturday afternoon. A special note to athletes & coaches: the verification of final entries meeting will be on Tuesday, September 11 from 10AM-10:30AM Mountain Time. Changes can be made during the meeting by Google Hangout. Join the chat here. You will not be able to join the link until September 11, 10am Mountain Time. You can submit your changes to usaw@usaweightlifting.org until 10AM Mountain Time on Monday, September 10.

USA Weightlifting applied for Guinness World Record certification as the largest Olympic weightlifting competition ever.





The American Open Series 3 also has implications for Team USA. It serves as the last qualifier for the 2018 IWF World Championships to be held in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan in November.

Contributing to the record turnout, the American Open Series 3 will be the first national competition to use the new bodyweight categories established by the International Weightlifting Federation in July. This is one of the first opportunities for athletes to set new American records in each new bodyweight category. New American Record Standards can be found here





USA Weightlifting has enjoyed an explosive growth in membership, thanks to a renaissance of strength-based competitions around the world. More women have joined the ranks of USA Weightlifting in the last decade. In fact, more women registered for the 2018 American Open Series 3, 956, than the total number of female members of USA Weightlifting in 2008, when there were 951 female members.