IWF120y/43 – 1891: The first of the 89 World Championships so far
Despite being hard to conceive, the first recognised “World Championship” contest took place in March 1891 in London. Fourteen years before the foundation of our International Federation, the event gathered seven athletes from six nations: for the history books, Edward Lawrence Levy (GBR) was the first “world champion”. With awkward athletic exercises and no formal frame, these “championships” had five more editions (1898, 1899, 1903, 1904, and 1905) until IWF’s ancestor saw the day, in June 1905. Since then, things have become more organised, but the “world” event was still totally dominated by Europe. In 1937, after a 14-year hiatus, the 23rd edition takes place in Paris (FRA) and seven lifters from the Americas are present. The following year, in Vienna (AUT), a third continent is represented: Africa. Four continents (including Asia) sent their best athletes to the 1949 event in Scheveningen (NED) and in 1958 (in the photo: Ike Berger, USA, winner in the 60kg category), the entire world meets in Stockholm (including for the first time two lifters from the fifth continent, Oceania). Participation numbers also grow steadily – Vienna 1954 reaches for the first time 100 lifters (only men at the time, and until 1986), Ljubljana (YUG, now SLO) 1982 gathers 205 athletes, and Donaueschingen (GER) 1991 is attended by 308 competitors (200 men and 108 women). If from 1964 to 1984 (included) the Olympics counted as World Championships for that year, the IWF showcase in the year preceding the Games is normally more attended than non-qualifying ones. It was for example the case in 1999 (before the Sydney 2000 Games), when the Worlds in Athens (GRE) registered the highest male participation so far – 395 lifters. Overall, the 2023 edition in Riyadh (KSA) – a qualification event for the Paris 2024 Olympics – was the most attended in IWF’s history, with 682 lifters (348 men, 334 women). Only once, in 2022 in Bogota, female lifters were more numerous than their male counterparts – the Colombian rendezvous attracted 265 women and 263 men.
