15 Best and Most Famous Powerlifters of All Time

Our ranking of the 15 best powerlifters of all time, led by Ed Coan, Larry Pacifico and Lamar Gant, with world titles and records.

Each profile lists the lifter’s weight class, country, birth date and the titles and records that matter, followed by what made the lifter stand out. The list runs from the first IPF world championships in the 1970s to the raw records of the 2020s, and it includes both equipped and raw lifters. Below the ranking you will find the best lifter for each lift and the names that just missed the cut.

How We Ranked the Powerlifters

Titles: world championships, above all those of the International Powerlifting Federation (IPF).
Records: world records in the squat, bench press, deadlift and total, and how long they stood.
Dominance: how far ahead of the field the lifter was, measured against bodyweight where it matters.
Impact: whether the lifter changed what people thought was possible in the sport.

Equipment and rules changed a lot over five decades, and records from different federations are not directly comparable. We judge each lifter against the field of the day. Strongmen such as Hafthor Bjornsson and Jon Pall Sigmarsson are not included, because their fame comes from a different sport. The order is our own judgment, not an official one.

The 15 Best Powerlifters at a Glance

#	Lifter	Weight class	Career
1	Ed Coan	100 kg and 110 kg (equipped)	1980s to late 1990s
2	Larry Pacifico	Middle and heavy classes (equipped)	1970s
3	Lamar Gant	56 kg and 60 kg	1970s and 1980s
4	Bill Kazmaier	Superheavyweight (equipped)	late 1970s and 1980s
5	Kirk Karwoski	125 kg (equipped)	1980s and 1990s
6	Jennifer Thompson	63 kg and 72 kg (bench press)	1999 to 2020s
7	Ray Williams	120+ kg (classic)	2010s and 2020s
8	John Haack	83 kg to 100 kg (raw)	2010s and 2020s
9	Becca Swanson	Superheavyweight (equipped)	from 1996
10	Andrey Malanichev	Superheavyweight (raw with wraps)	2000s and 2010s
11	Bonica Brown	84+ kg (classic and equipped)	2000s to 2020s
12	Kimberly Walford	72 kg (classic)	2010s and 2020s
13	Andy Bolton	Superheavyweight (equipped)	2000s and 2010s
14	Amanda Lawrence	84 kg (classic)	since the late 2010s
15	Blaine Sumner	120+ kg (equipped and classic)	2010s

#1 Ed Coan

🏋️ Weight class: 100 kg and 110 kg (equipped)
🎂 Born: July 24, 1963
🌍 Country: United States
🏆 Career Highlights: 71 world records, multiple world titles, lightest man to total over 2,400 lb (1991), total of 1,117 kg (2,463 lb) at 110 kg (1998), 1,035 kg world record total at 100 kg at the 1994 IPF Worlds
🏛️ Hall of Fame: International Sports Hall of Fame (2015)

Coan started lifting after he watched Bill Kazmaier train at a Chicago health club. At the 1991 Senior Nationals he became the lightest man to total more than 2,400 lb, and over his career he set 71 world records.

At the 1994 IPF World Championships in South Africa he totalled 1,035 kg at 100 kg, a world record at the time, and in 1998 he reached 1,117 kg (2,463 lb) at 110 kg. His record has a stain: he was suspended after a positive test in 1989, and a second positive test at the 1996 IPF Worlds in Salzburg brought a lifetime IPF ban.

#2 Larry Pacifico

🏋️ Weight class: Middle and heavy classes (equipped)
🎂 Born: January 17, 1946
🌍 Country: United States
🏆 Career Highlights: Nine straight world titles (1971 to 1979), 102 competition wins, 54 world records, 592 lb bench press without a bench shirt
🏛️ Hall of Fame: York Barbell Hall of Fame (1998)

Pacifico won nine world titles in a row from 1971 to 1979, a run that earned him the nickname “Mr. Powerlifting”. He won 102 competitions and set 54 world records over that decade.

His bench press of 592 lb came without a bench shirt, years before supportive gear changed the lift, and his best competition total was 2,061 lb. He was inducted into the York Barbell Hall of Fame on June 28, 1998, and later ran a gym in Dayton, Ohio.

#3 Lamar Gant

🏋️ Weight class: 56 kg and 60 kg
🎂 Born: 1957, in Flint, Michigan
🌍 Country: United States
🏆 Career Highlights: First person to deadlift five times bodyweight (300 kg at 60 kg, 1985), first world record in 1974 (238 kg deadlift at 56 kg), deadlift world records in the 123 lb and 132 lb classes
🏛️ Hall of Fame: IPF Hall of Fame (1980)

Gant competed his whole career with idiopathic scoliosis, a curved spine that did not stop him from becoming the best deadlifter pound for pound the sport has seen. He set his first world record in 1974, pulling 238 kg at a bodyweight of 56 kg at the Flint Olympian Games.

In 1985 he became the first person to deadlift five times his own bodyweight, 300 kg at 60 kg. Sources credit him with 15 or 16 IPF world titles, and he was inducted into the IPF Hall of Fame as early as 1980.

#4 Bill Kazmaier

🏋️ Weight class: Superheavyweight (equipped)
🎂 Born: December 30, 1953, in Burlington, Wisconsin
🌍 Country: United States
🏆 Career Highlights: IPF world champion (1979, 1983), first 300 kg bench press in an IPF meet (1981), total of 1,100 kg (1981), three World’s Strongest Man titles (1980 to 1982)
🏛️ Hall of Fame: International Sports Hall of Fame (2017)

Kazmaier won the IPF world title in 1979 in Dayton and again in 1983. On January 31, 1981, in Columbus, Georgia, he benched 300 kg, the first 300 kg bench in an IPF meet, and totalled 1,100 kg (2,425 lb), a record that stood for more than a decade.

By November 1981 he held the world records in three of the four events at once, helped by an 886 lb deadlift. He also won World’s Strongest Man three times in a row from 1980 to 1982, and he set 40 world records across powerlifting and strongman.

#5 Kirk Karwoski

🏋️ Weight class: 125 kg (equipped)
🎂 Born: Date not published
🌍 Country: United States
🏆 Career Highlights: Six IPF world titles, seven USPF national titles, IPF junior world champion, 455 kg (1,003 lb) IPF squat record at 125 kg (1995)

Karwoski, known as “Captain Kirk”, won six IPF world titles and seven USPF national titles after first winning the IPF junior world championship. He was above all a squatter.

In 1995 he set the IPF equipped squat record of 455 kg (1,003 lb) in the 125 kg class. The same year he squatted 800 lb for five reps in training with only a belt, a set many in the sport still call the most impressive ever.

#6 Jennifer Thompson

🏋️ Weight class: 63 kg and 72 kg (bench press)
🎂 Born: June 27, 1973
🌍 Country: United States
🏆 Career Highlights: At least 11 IPF world titles, 146 kg bench press at 67.5 kg (2023), 145.1 kg bench press on her 50th birthday
🏛️ Hall of Fame: IPF Hall of Fame (2019)

Thompson made her IPF debut in 1999 and became the most decorated bench presser in women’s powerlifting. She has won at least 11 IPF world titles, including more than ten classic bench press championships, and held all-time world records at 63 kg and 72 kg.

The IPF inducted her into its Hall of Fame in 2019, while she was still winning. In March 2023, at 49, she benched 146 kg at 67.5 kg bodyweight, and on her 50th birthday she pressed 145.1 kg (320 lb).

#7 Ray Williams

🏋️ Weight class: 120+ kg (classic)
🎂 Born: September 15, 1986, in Demopolis, Alabama
🌍 Country: United States
🏆 Career Highlights: Five IPF classic world titles, six USAPL national titles, first 1,000 lb squat in knee sleeves (2016), 490 kg classic squat (2019), 398.5 kg deadlift (2018), 1,112.5 kg total

Williams won five IPF classic world titles in the superheavyweight class. In 2016 he squatted 438 kg at the IPF Worlds in Killeen, Texas, and later that year he became the first man to squat more than 1,000 lb in knee sleeves, 456 kg at the USAPL Raw Nationals.

He raised the mark to 477.5 kg in 2017, 485 kg in 2018 and 490 kg at the 2019 Arnold, a record Devonte Lewis passed only in 2026. In June 2025 he received a 16 month suspension after a positive test for heptaminol, and his 2025 Raw Nationals result was annulled.

#8 John Haack

🏋️ Weight class: 83 kg to 100 kg (raw)
🎂 Born: February 1, 1993
🌍 Country: United States
🏆 Career Highlights: IPF junior and open total record at 83 kg (813 kg, 2016), 1,022.5 kg total at 90 kg (2022), first 100 kg man to bench over 600 lb (2022)

Haack first made his name in the IPF, where he set junior and open records at 83 kg in 2016 with a 298 kg squat and an 813 kg total. He then moved to untested federations and kept climbing.

In 2022 he totalled 1,022.5 kg at 90 kg at the WRPF American Pro, and on September 24, 2022, he became the first man in the 100 kg class to bench more than 600 lb (272.5 kg).

#9 Becca Swanson

🏋️ Weight class: Superheavyweight (equipped)
🎂 Born: November 20, 1973, in Papillion, Nebraska
🌍 Country: United States
🏆 Career Highlights: First woman to total more than 2,000 lb, world records in the superheavyweight class of the WPC, APF and WPO

Swanson started powerlifting in 1996 and finished a mechanical engineering degree at the University of Nebraska in 1998. She competed in the multi-ply federations, where her squat, bench and deadlift set records in the women’s superheavyweight class.

She became the first woman to total more than 2,000 lb, a mark that put her in a class of her own for years. From 2009 to 2010 she also tried professional wrestling.

#10 Andrey Malanichev

🏋️ Weight class: Superheavyweight (raw with wraps)
🎂 Born: January 10, 1977, in Barvikha, Russia
🌍 Country: Russia
🏆 Career Highlights: 485 kg squat and 1,140 kg total in wraps (2016, both former all-time records), five Cup of the Titans wins, PowerliftingWatch strongest lifter (2011, 2014)

Malanichev was the best raw superheavyweight of his generation, lifting with knee wraps in federations outside the IPF. He won the Cup of the Titans five times between 2008 and 2015, and PowerliftingWatch named him the strongest lifter in the world in 2011 and 2014.

At the Big Dogs meet in Frankston, Australia, in October 2016 he squatted 485 kg and finished with a 400 kg deadlift for a 1,140 kg total, both all-time records in wraps. Daniel Bell later passed the total by two and a half kilos.

#11 Bonica Brown

🏋️ Weight class: 84+ kg (classic and equipped)
🎂 Born: August 4, 1988, in Battle Creek, Michigan
🌍 Country: United States
🏆 Career Highlights: World Games champion (2017), four IPF equipped world titles, seven IPF classic world titles, all five classic 84+ kg world records at the 2018 IPF Worlds

Brown started lifting at 14 and won two IPF sub-junior equipped world titles before she moved up. At the 2017 World Games she won gold with a world record squat of 310.5 kg and a world record total of 763 kg in equipment.

She is just as strong without gear: she has won seven IPF classic world titles, and at the 2018 IPF Worlds she broke all five classic world records in the 84+ kg class. Her coach was Kimberly Walford, who is also on this list.

#12 Kimberly Walford

🏋️ Weight class: 72 kg (classic)
🎂 Born: Date not published
🌍 Country: United States, US Virgin Islands
🏆 Career Highlights: Seven global classic titles counting the 2012 World Cup (as of 2019), 257.5 kg deadlift (2017 Arnold), 244 kg IPF deadlift record at 72 kg (2020)

Walford won her first global raw title at the 2012 World Cup, and her 2019 IPF classic world title, now representing the US Virgin Islands, was her seventh. She was best known for her deadlift, the lift that won her most of those meets.

She pulled 257.5 kg at the 2017 Arnold, and in Reykjavik in January 2020 she set the IPF deadlift record at 72 kg with 244 kg. She also coached Bonica Brown.

#13 Andy Bolton

🏋️ Weight class: Superheavyweight (equipped)
🎂 Born: January 22, 1970, in Dewsbury, England
🌍 Country: United Kingdom
🏆 Career Highlights: First 1,000 lb deadlift (2006), six equipped deadlift world records (2003 to 2009, up to 457.5 kg), 550.5 kg WPO squat, 1,273 kg WPO total

In 2006 Bolton became the first man to deadlift 1,000 lb in competition. Between 2003 and 2009 he broke the equipped deadlift world record six times, finishing at 457.5 kg, and his rivalry with Benedikt Magnusson pushed the lift forward.

He was more than a deadlifter: he squatted 550.5 kg and totalled 1,273 kg in the WPO. At 40, in 2010, he entered his first raw meet and pulled 437.5 kg, and in 2012 he wrote the book “Deadlift Dynamite” with Pavel Tsatsouline.

#14 Amanda Lawrence

🏋️ Weight class: 84 kg (classic)
🎂 Born: May 6, 1997
🌍 Country: United States, US Virgin Islands
🏆 Career Highlights: IPF classic world champion at 84 kg (first title 2019), 647 kg classic total record (2024)

Lawrence won her first IPF classic world title in 2019 on a tie, taking gold over Daniella Melo because she weighed less. She won the 84 kg title again in 2021, when she competed for the US Virgin Islands.

She totalled a record 647 kg at the 2024 Sheffield meet, and as of 2026 she was still breaking IPF records.

#15 Blaine Sumner

🏋️ Weight class: 120+ kg (equipped and classic)
🎂 Born: June 22, 1987, in Conifer, Colorado
🌍 Country: United States
🏆 Career Highlights: IPF world champion (2016, 2019), first American man to win IPF classic world gold (2012), five USAPL equipped titles, first single-ply bench over 1,000 lb (455 kg, 2019), 28 world records

Sumner became the first American man to win gold at the IPF Classic World Championships in 2012. He later won the IPF open world title in the 120+ kg class in 2016 and 2019, and five USAPL equipped championships.

On March 2, 2019, at the Arnold in Columbus, he benched 455 kg (1,003 lb), the first bench over 1,000 lb in single-ply gear in any federation. His single-ply total of 1,296 kg and squat of 515 kg are the highest ever in that equipment class.

Best Powerlifter for Every Lift

If you want one name per lift or era, these are our picks. For how the sport grew out of odd lifts in the 1950s and 1960s, see our history of powerlifting.

Category	Lifter	Why
Squat	Ray Williams	First 1,000 lb squat in knee sleeves, 490 kg classic squat in 2019
Bench press	Jennifer Thompson	At least 11 IPF world titles, mostly on the bench
Deadlift	Lamar Gant	First to deadlift five times bodyweight
Total	Ed Coan	71 world records and a 1,117 kg total at 110 kg
Pioneer era	Larry Pacifico	Nine straight world titles in the 1970s
Raw era	John Haack	First 100 kg man to bench more than 600 lb
Women, equipped	Becca Swanson	First woman to total more than 2,000 lb
Women, classic	Bonica Brown	Seven IPF classic world titles

Honorable Mentions

Seven more lifters who came close and could make a top 15 on another day.

Dan Green: Totalled 1,002.5 kg at 110 kg and 957.5 kg at 100 kg, and runs the Boss Barbell Club.
Benedikt Magnusson: Held the raw deadlift world record of 460.4 kg from 2011 to 2022.
Brian Siders: Set a world record total of 2,452 lb at the 2004 USAPL Senior Nationals.
Stefi Cohen: Set 25 world records and was the first woman to deadlift four times her bodyweight.
Taylor Atwood: Won three IPF world titles in the 74 kg class.
Jesse Norris: Set records in the 90 kg class and totalled ten times his bodyweight.
Devonte Lewis: Squatted 490.5 kg in 2026 to pass Ray Williams’ classic squat record.

More About Powerlifting

FAQ

Who is the best powerlifter of all time?

In our ranking it is Ed Coan, ahead of Larry Pacifico and Lamar Gant. Coan set 71 world records and was the lightest man to total more than 2,400 lb, although he was banned by the IPF after a second positive test in 1996.

Who are the top 10 powerlifters of all time?

Our top 10 is Ed Coan, Larry Pacifico, Lamar Gant, Bill Kazmaier, Kirk Karwoski, Jennifer Thompson, Ray Williams, John Haack, Becca Swanson and Andrey Malanichev.

Who is the best female powerlifter of all time?

In our ranking it is Jennifer Thompson, with at least 11 IPF world titles. Becca Swanson was the first woman to total more than 2,000 lb, and Bonica Brown has won seven IPF classic world titles.