Powerlifting is a competitive strength sport that evaluates an athlete's ability to lift the maximum weight they can in one repetition, using a barbell. The three lifts used in powerlifting are the squat, bench press, and deadlift.

Each athlete gets three attempts at each lift.
The highest successful attempt of each lift is added together to form athletes total.

There are many ways events can be scored.
the most popular is by percentage of the world record in a given weight class.
This allows athletes of different genders and different weight classes to compete against each other.