In Druskininkai, on the platform of the 2026 IPF World Classic Open Powerlifting Championships, Tiffany Chapon walked out for her third squat and settled a barbell loaded to 170.5 kilograms across her shoulders. She weighed 46.80 kilograms. She rose out of the descent and set an Open world record, more than three and a half times her own body weight.
The squat had built cleanly. Chapon opened at 157.5 and moved to 167.5, then asked for 170.5 and received it. It was the platform's decisive statement, and it framed everything that followed. On the bench press she took 105 kilograms to lead the class, before a 107.5 attempt slipped away. The deadlift then turned from a coronation into a contest. Chapon opened at 165, took 175, and closed on 177.5. That final pull ranked only fourth on the deadlift of the day, yet it was enough. It carried her total to 453.0 kilograms — a second Open world record, and the number that decided the class.
How the class was won
The margin told the story of the session. Chapon finished the -47kg category on 453.0 kilograms, clear of Canada's Amelie Picher-Plante on 432.5 and the United States' Leanne Le on 427.5. Le out-deadlifted the field with 195 kilograms and Picher-Plante pulled 187.5, but neither could close the ground Chapon had opened under the squat bar. The record squat, not the deadlift, was where the title was made.
Her total also carried the wider championship. Scored against the field on IPF GL points, Chapon posted 126.11 — the best mark by any woman on the day, ahead of Sweden's Alba Bostrom on 124.81 and New Zealand's Megan-Li Smith on 123.25. She left Druskininkai as Best Lifter of the Open, the lightest athlete in the room and the highest scoring.
A trajectory, not a departure
The result reads as continuation rather than surprise. Chapon, born in 2001, has spent recent seasons at the front of the lightest IPF class, a French lifter whose reputation rests on the squat and on control at the very edge of the weight limit. Druskininkai advanced that reputation by a fine margin. The 170.5 squat pushed her own ceiling higher; the 453.0 total tied the whole performance together into a record that stands on its own.
What distinguished this day was the completeness of it. A world-record squat, a class-leading bench, a deadlift good enough to finish the job, and the best female score of the championship — all from an athlete lifting under 47 kilograms.
She came in the smallest lifter in the hall, and left holding the biggest number.
