USA Weightlifting

2023 North American Open Series 1 – at the Arnold Sports Festival

2023 National University Championships

The North American Open Series kicks off March 2-5 in Columbus, Ohio, with a trio of competitions: North American Open Series 1, National University Championships and the Friendship Cup. This marks the third year NAOS1 and university nationals will be held conjunctively, and the fifth time in the series’s seven years that NAOS1 will be paired with the Arnold Sports Festival.

Following the overwhelming success of the 2022 edition – the largest participation strength event ever with 1,866 competitors entered – the 2023 event will return to Union Station Ballroom in the Greater Columbus Convention Center. In order to do so, the two events is capped at a combined 1,050 athletes; if you wish to enter your name in the waitlist, please click here.

The USA Weightlifting Friendship Cup, which debuted during the 2022 USA Weightlifting National Championships, returns in March. The Friendship Cup is a rare opportunity for American weightlifting fans to watch international competitors in person. Two-athlete teams of one man and one woman, each from a different nation, compete for a combined placement. Athletes lift in their respective bodyweight category sessions of the NAOS1/NUC, and their Sinclair totals will combine for the Friendship Cup team result. The eight-team 2022 field included four Olympians, four world medalists and medalists from the African, European, Oceania and Pan American Championships; it was won by the team of Olympic medalist Sara Ahmed of Egypt and world medalist Andranik Karapetyan of Armenia.

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