Agata Sitko's Suspension: What Happened, and Where It Stands

Agata Sitko is one of the best classic powerlifters in the world. In July 2025 Poland's national federation suspended her licence, which kept her out of every IPF-sanctioned meet. I made a video about it in August 2025, about five weeks in, and this piece is the update: what happened, what I said at the time, and where things stand now.

Sitko was preparing for the 2025 World Games in Chengdu, China, held 7 to 17 August 2025. The Polish federation (PZKFiTS) told her it would not let her coach, Paweł Jurczyński, travel with her. She pulled out of the Games, and on 17 July 2025 the federation suspended her licence. There are a lot of rumours circling about why Paweł was blocked from coaching, but none are well substantiated. It is clear, though, that there was bad blood between him and the federation before, and there is certainly more of it now. Paweł has said so repeatedly on his own Instagram account.

You don't normally need a licence for every IPF-sanctioned meet; at the local level, you probably don't even know about the licences! But if you have your licence stripped away from you, it means you can't compete at any level, even at the local level! This meant that she couldn't compete anywhere in the IPF, not only in Poland. Reports say losing the licence also carried six months before she could get a new one.

When I filmed this the IPF had said nothing about the case for over a month, and I argued the problem was structural, not just about one lifter. I believe the IPF had, and still has, a responsibility to implement fair structures to prevent disproportionate punishments on lifters. Stepping in, either through issuing new rules, guidance, or even just a statement could have shown the world that the IPF cares about athletes' rights, at the individual level, but sadly they failed to summon the courage to make such a statement.

The Polish federation, PZKFiTS, covers powerlifting, bodybuilding and strongman, and its government funding depends on targets such as results on the world stage and WADA compliance. That ties powerlifting to the doping record of the other two sports, and to whether its biggest name competes. I suggested powerlifting should be able to spin out into a body of its own, and that the IPF should set that as the international standard.

I also asked the IPF for an international athletes' rights standard. They should set into their regulations whether an athlete can refuse to compete, choose a coach in good standing, criticise their federation, and appeal to the IPF past their national body. I said I thought most of the IPF's recent trouble, including the knee sleeve ban, the Article 14 suspensions and the president's resignation, came down to four things: transparency, consistency, credibility and individual rights. This would address all of these issues, but they have not made any step in this direction, as far as I am aware.

Fans were furious. Soft-banning the greatest lifter of all time allegedly due to a spat between her coach and the Polish federation is ridiculous, and the outrage is well deserved. Some of her supporters even started a change.org petition asking for her to be given a temporary licence to compete at the Silent Worker meet. As far as I can tell, the IPF itself made no official announcement about the suspension.

As of October 2026, nothing has changed. Agata is still banned. Looking at her recent training, she is still very much the GOAT (see the clip below). But most of all, there is no end in sight. Hopefully something changes soon, but it seems doubtful.

• In the IPF, your right to compete goes through your national federation. Your licence is theirs to grant, and losing can rule you out of every IPF meet, at home and abroad.

• Federations set their own rules on who can coach or handle at international meets, including coaching licences, team selection and accreditation. Read your federation's rules before a big meet, not after.

• If you're picked for a national team, ask early who can come with you and on what terms. You probably won't be able to choose a coach. I was lucky enough that the GB team coaches are top notch (especially lucky to have been handled by Alex Fodor and Scott Simon at Worlds and Euros respectively), but if you have personal issues or any other problem with a coach, this can be a real problem!