USAPL said it was far more committed to testing its athletes than any other National Federation, but its anti-doping programme is self-regulated and it was kicked out by the International Powerlifting Federation (IPF) for "non-compliance with the World Anti-Doping Code".

Larry Maile, President of USAPL, said the IPF anti-doping system favoured nations that had no intention of catching cheats and the Americans were effectively being punished for carrying out too many tests – a claim disputed by the IPF.

Given that the IPF has long-term ambitions for powerlifting to become an Olympic Games sport, it is compelled to be a signatory to the World Anti-Doping Code.

All member federations must abide by the Code’s conditions, which forbid testing and analysis by unaccredited entities.

The basis of the Americans' argument is that being World Anti-Doping Agency-compliant (WADA) ticks the right boxes in one respect but makes all testing prohibitively expensive because affordable methods of sample collection and analysis are not permitted.

That in turn, they argue, discourages nations from testing their athletes and allows cheats to prosper – another claim which the IPF rejected.

Maile said of the rift with the IPF: "We have different philosophies, different views of what constitutes fair play."

Sigurjón Pétursson, vice-president of the IPF, told insidethegames: "The purpose and structure of a WADA-compliant system is to catch cheats.

"The USAPL is not punished for doing too many tests, only for doing unauthorised tests, using non-compliant sample collections and non-WADA accredited labs and operating other parts of their anti-doping system completely in a non-compliant way, violating the Code and all its standards.

"The USAPL has a meagre budget that is not in accordance with the number of tests they want to have. 

"That is not a fault of the system but underfunding.

"The IPF urges all members to test but for financial reasons, not all are able to.

"One of the fundamental principles in the Code and the UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) Convention on Doping in Sports is to ensure that all athletes all over the world are treated equally.

"By operating their primitive non-compliant system the USAPL violates this principle."

The Americans were suspended in August and required to drop their own self-regulated testing programme.

Maile told insidethegames: "Our dilemma was 'do we become a nation that does token testing at best, and not even very good token testing, or do we stick to our principles and follow our mission and maintain our commitment for lifters at every level?'"

Having started out as the American Drug-Free Powerlifting Association in 1981, USAPL – which took its current name and affiliated to the IPF in 1997 – stuck by its principles and refused to drop its own programme.

It was voted out this week at the IPF Congress in Stavanger in Norway.

While USAPL oversaw more than 3,000 anti-doping tests in 2019, the most recent year with available data, many of the IPF’s 150 member federations carried out no testing at all.

The Americans have about 400 elite lifters in their registered testing pool and have tested every one of them, while the pool for all other IPF nations combined is only about 30, Maile said.

The dispute concerned the self-administered anti-doping programme, which uses volunteers – including athletes, according to the IPF - for sample collection and a forensic laboratory for sample analysis, rather than a far more expensive WADA-accredited laboratory.

USAPL calculated the cost of official WADA tests at $1,300 (£970/€1,100) each when nine athletes were tested at its National Championships, compared with $100 (£75/€87) per test under its own self-regulated programme.

USAPL said that of 3,100 tests it oversaw in 2019, about 700 would have been WADA-compliant and the rest not.

If it had to carry out only the more expensive WADA-regulated tests, USAPL would have to pay $2 million (£1.5 million/€1.7 million) more – using its entire annual budget on testing alone – or reduce the number of tests by 90-95%, it said.

Pétursson said: "There is no such thing as a USAPL WADA-compliant test.

"The whole anti-doping process is non-compliant. 

"There is no test distribution plan, there is a highly non-compliant TUE (therapeutic use exemption) process, and there is a results management process that is non-compliant.

"Athletes are collecting samples from athletes."

Maile said: "Athletes don't test their associates or peers.

"Tests are done by doping control officers who are referees as a minimum and who have been certified to perform collection duties. 

"They are identified by their credentials, as any other doping control officer."

The United States is one of the most prominent nations in powerlifting, with more than 16,000 registered athletes – it was 23,000 before the pandemic - and an array of sponsored meets.

It suggested a "split", whereby elite international athletes in the registered testing pool would be tested under WADA conditions, while recreational lifters would not.

This would protect USAPL’s core values of trying to ensure a clean platform at all levels, Maile said.

The proposal was deemed "an existential threat" to the IPF by its legal adviser, as the governing body would not have control over all athletes.

Pétursson said: "It violates all principles."

After rejecting it, the IPF voted the Americans out.

"We went to Norway to present our case," said Maile. 

"We wanted to explain why the IPF testing system is inadequate for USAPL."

He rated the IPF anti-doping programme "inadequate" and "not acceptable to us".

Maile complained that WADA made testing unaffordable, saying: "They can set the prices however they see fit, they can also deem it unethical for anybody to use anyone else other than them, so there are no free-market pressures on WADA.

"They charge exorbitant fees. 

"In essence, they’re supporting, for want of a better description, an empire.

"We run a self-administered anti-doping programme here in the US so we don’t run up huge expenses for personnel.

"We use volunteers and an accredited forensic lab that has to go through certification every 90 days."

WADA did not wish to make a formal statement on a dispute within an International Federation but a spokesman pointed out that laboratories operated independently and set their own fees. 

WADA did not set or charge any fees for any part of the testing process.

Maile also said that the model of a "split" system was already in operation in basketball and ice hockey, with WADA’s support.

Professional athletes register their eligibility for an Olympic Games six months before the competition and then go into the registered testing pool.

He added: "What the IPF has done by kicking us out is create a two-tier system anyway."

World Powerlifting, a rival body with 38 members, complained of "anomalies, injustices and corruption" in the IPF anti-doping system, and of "highly questionable" actions by the IPF.

Its Board said in a statement: "USAPL’s claim that it has been expelled for testing too much is quite true."

Maile pointed out that a number of nations had previously been expelled for excessive doping, including Russia, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, India and Iran, but the IPF had never threatened any of them with expulsion.

The only nation expelled is the one with the strongest anti-doping programme, he said.

Pétursson replied: "In the IPF anti-doping rules, consequences of doping are defined: nations are suspended but not expelled.

"Mr Maile has been a member of the IPF Anti-Doping Commission and the IPF Executive Committee and has never proposed an expulsion like this or an amendment of the rules to this effect."

The IPF stated that USAPL’s expulsion was a result of "non-compliance with the World Anti-Doping Code and ongoing violations of the Code even after their suspension from the IPF".

Maile said USAPL would focus on domestic competitions and "going back to traditional weight classes" for now and was not ready to affiliate with another world organisation.

It would, though, invite foreign athletes to participate in its Pro Series and compete as guests at its national championships.

"There have been a couple of ironies following our expulsion," Maile added.

"We were contacted by six nations in the 12 hours after the Congress who want to become USAPL affiliated nations.

"Second irony: we have 300 foreign members as individuals now, who are on visa, in the process of immigration.

"We are not sure what to make of all that, but there is significant foreign interest in USA Powerlifting."