Athletes
Olympic medallists, world champions and world-record holders have trained on this floor.
Michael Slabic — 303 kg at 59 kg bodyweight, IPF World Classic Championships, 2026
Eleven nations
There are flags on the wall at Brazos Valley Barbell, and each one belongs to somebody who has trained here.
Australia, the Bahamas, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Grenada, Mexico, Peru, Trinidad and Tobago, and the United States.
The track athletes ran at the track and the swimmers swam at the pool. The strength, power and recovery work that held all of it together happened here.
The platform
Three of these four have results from 2024 to 2026. They train at Brazos Valley Barbell under their own coaches — the platform is theirs.
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Michael Slabic
USA · 59 kg
Holder of the IPF Open world record in the deadlift at 59 kg — 303 kg, or 668 lb, set at the 2026 IPF World Classic Championships. The first lifter under 59 kg to pull over 300 kg.
Silver medallist in the Open at those same championships, with gold on the deadlift. National champion at 59 kg at the 2026 Powerlifting America Open Nationals. USAPL Collegiate national champion in 2024 and 2025, and the holder of three junior world records.
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Janee Kovacs
USA · 69 kg
IPF Junior World Champion at 69 kg, 2025. Silver medallist in the Open at the 2026 IPF World Classic Championships. National champion at the 2026 Powerlifting America Open Nationals with a 570 kg personal best.
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Jessica Espinal
USA · 47 kg
IPF Junior World Champion at 47 kg, 2024 — with a total that stood as an IPF Open world record at that weight, alongside a junior world record deadlift. Silver medallist in the Open at the IPF World Classic Championships in both 2023 and 2024. National champion at the 2024 Powerlifting America Nationals.
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David Woolson USA · 93 kg · FounderFounder of Brazos Valley Barbell, which he sold to Phillip Scruggs in 2020.
Bronze medallist in the Open at the 2019 IPF World Classic Championships. USAPL national champion at 93 kg in 2018. Winner of the 2017 Arnold Sports Festival Pro Raw Challenge, second in 2016, and third at the 2020 Arnold SBD Pro American.
USA Powerlifting and Powerlifting America are separate organisations. USAPL left the IPF in 2021 and Powerlifting America is now the IPF's member federation in the United States, so a recent IPF World Championship result means Powerlifting America.
