LEIGH SALES, PRESENTER: Parliament House isn't the only place where you'll find politics. Pretty much any organisation, no matter how big or small, will at some stage become captive to people jockeying for power.

The sport of powerlifting in Australia is a case in point, with two local federations vying for control and athletes caught in the middle.

Tracey Holmes reports.

TRACEY HOLMES, REPORTER: Power lifting is a pursuit which requires grit, guts and brute force.

COMMENTATOR: It's easy and he can hold it there all day long.

COMMENTATOR: It's a long way down and it's deep.

COMMENTATOR: There's a reason why she's a world champion.

CASS PICKARD, WORLD POWERLIFTING CHAMPION: We love lifting. I love lifting.

I'm a mum. I'm extremely busy mum. I work in a couple of different jobs and I'm an athlete and that's all I have time for.

COMMENTATOR: That is a huge opener. We're talking 407 pounds.

TRACEY HOLMES: Cass Pickard is the current world champion. She began lifting after the birth of her two children.

CASS PICKARD: I've been lifting internationally for Australia now for the last five years and I want to keep lifting at this level.

TRACEY HOLMES: But now she's caught up in a power struggle between this man, Robert Wilks, and one of his former athletes, Sean Muir, and it's torn the sport apart.

Like many strength-based sports, power lifting was once awash with steroids. The International Powerlifting Federation was formed in 1972 and with long-term Olympic aspirations introduced drug testing.

GASTON PARAGE, INTERNATIONAL POWERLIFTING FEDERATION: We want a clean sport and that is why we are fighting against doping and that is our goal.

ROBERT WILKS, POWERLIFTING AUSTRALIA: Push backwards. First bit goes back.

TRACEY HOLMES: The international body endorsed Powerlifting Australia as its local affiliate.

Its long time CEO is Robert Wilks.

ROBERT WILKS: We are the predominant body representing the sport in Australia. We have the vast majority of members, the vast majority of competitions.

TRACEY HOLMES: But the relationship has soured.

In 2015 Robert resigned as chair of the international body's anti-doping commission.

What brought him down though had nothing to do with drugs.

GASTON PARAGE: We received a PowerPoint presentation in our meeting from a third party, relating to his wife's business and that was the reason why he resigned because the question has been raised up, if that is not an ethical problem.

TRACEY HOLMES: That ethical problem, according to the international federation, is the legal brothels run by Robert Wilks' wife.

GASTON PARAGE: This is surely a problem that parents would train their children with a coach who is officially representing a federation and who is related to this business.

I said to you "What do you propose?" and then he proposed to us to resign.

TRACEY HOLMES: But Robert says he resigned because he was fed up with the state of the international body run by Gaston Parage.

ROBERT WILKS: He found all these spurious matters along those lines, what licences or businesses my wife might have had or does have and just threw that at me.

TRACEY HOLMES: So it wasn't because the timing happened to coincide with them distributing a PowerPoint presentation to the board?

ROBERT WILKS: No.

TRACEY HOLMES: Suggesting these links with your wife's businesses?

ROBERT WILKS: No. Absolutely not. That's not the issue.

The issue was me being fed up with the state of the IPF.

What my wife does is my wife's business. I have no connection with her businesses.

TRACEY HOLMES: Then in November last year, the international federation voted to remove Wilks entirely and cut ties with Powerlifting Australia, leaving the athletes out in the cold.

CASS PICKARD: Forty-seven countries and 47 wanted them out.

We were told that, you know, if we were going to carry on lifting for Powerlifting Australia, we couldn't lift under the IPF umbrella anymore which means, as athletes, none of us could compete at an international level.

TRACEY HOLMES: Rather than walk away, Robert Wilks launched legal action against the IPF in two separate courts and at the same time established a new international body in direct competition to the IPF.

With the court cases still unfolding, behind closed doors allegations continue to fly from all sides.

Do you not think that with these legal cases that you have and with this setting up of your own international body that you're not playing into the hands of your detractors that say you come across as bullying and threatening?

ROBERT WILKS: How is it threatening to establish a bona fide sporting body? How is that bullying?

SHANE NAYLOR, FORMER POWERLIFTER: I have heard that Rob has been a bit of a bully and has threatened legal action at times.

I've never experienced that myself. I know he runs a tight ship with his federation and I guess he's had to.

TRACEY HOLMES: Former lifter, Shane Naylor, says that Robert's brand of leadership is paramount to his success.

SHANE NAYLOR: He's very passionate about the sport. He has always been good with young people entering the sport and he's been very influential. He's coached a lot of great athletes.

TRACEY HOLMES: One of those is Sean Muir.

In order to provide athletes like Cass Pickard a path to the world championships, he formed a new national body - the Australian Powerlifting Union - which now has the backing of the international federation.

But it meant walking away from his long-time coach, Robert Wilks.

SEAN MUIR, AUSTRALIAN POWERLIFTING UNION: I appreciate everything he's done for the sport but my goal now is to look after the athletes that are coming across the APU.

He's been a credit to powerlifting in general.

I, as you probably are very aware, I have got to be very cautious.

TRACEY HOLMES: Sean is cautious because he is also being sued by Robert Wilks who says the cases are based on misleading and deceptive conduct.

ROBERT WILKS: APU has claimed at various points they have testing from this agency, the other agency, ASADA and now they're claiming that they are WADA compliant.

TRACEY HOLMES: Sean Muir has now lodged a countersuit against Robert Wilks.

Like Robert, Sean is also a strong anti-doping campaigner.

SEAN MUIR: Drug testing is so important because it keeps a level playing field for all athletes, especially in this strength sport called powerlifting.

TRACEY HOLMES: But here's the sting - he can't get anti-doping agency ASADA to test his athletes because Robert Wilks' federation is the only Australian body recognised by the Australian Sports Commission.

SHANE NAYLOR: Rob has been at the helm of the original federation, the one that's affiliated with the Australian Sports Commission and the other government sporting bodies.

TRACEY HOLMES: But that recognition expires at the end of the year.

Then the sport's commission has a choice to make - continue to endorse the Wilks'-run Powerlifting Australia, or hand it over to the Muir-run APU?

In the meantime, the athletes are trying not to be distracted by the politics and legalities in this classic power struggle.

CASS PICKARD: I love lifting and I want to keep lifting at this level.

I don't' know how long I'm going to be competitive enough so if I can keep lifting now, I don't want to hang around and wait to see what is going to happen down the track.