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Last chance to vote for the 2019 LIFTERS OF THE YEAR!

Today, 10 February is the last chance to vote on who was your Best Male and Best Female Lifter in 2019, the poll closes tomorrow! The winners will receive the  “IWF Jenő Boskovics Lifter of the Year Trophies for 2019”! MEN OM YUN CHOL (PRK, 55 kg) SHI ZHIYONG (CHN, 73 kg) LYU XIAOJUN (CHN, 81 kg) MARTIROSYAN SIMON (ARM, 109 kg) TALAKHADZE LASHA (GEO, +109 kg) WOMEN KUO HSING-CHUN (TPE), 59 kg) DENG WEI (CHN, 64 kg) NYE KATHERINE ELIZABETH (USA, 71 kg) RIM JONG SIM (PRK, 76 kg) SOLIS ARBOLEDA LEIDY YESSENIA (COL, 81 kg) VOTE

Filipino weightlifter Hidilyn Diaz aims to re-write the history books at Tokyo 2020

Filipino weightlifter Hidilyn Diaz is aiming to re-write the history books at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. Diaz, 28, became the first Filipino woman to win a medal at Rio four years ago when she took silver in the 53kg final. Tokyo will be her fourth consecutive Games but this time round she is aiming for gold. She won three gold medals at the Weightlifting World Cup in Rome at the end of last month which has raised expectations for her to seal gold in Tokyo. And Diaz is now having to focus dealing with the pressure ahead of the summer. She said: "It was a different story back in 2016 because no one expected that I would win. "In 2020, everyone now believes we have a chance to win a medal in the Olympics, of course, the pressure and the expectations are high. "I need to prepare and formulate a strategy. I can't just go there to Japan and expect to win without doing anything. "Sometimes I question why it's so hard, why it's difficult to win in the Olympics, and why I have to push myself hard in training. Sometimes I question why I need to give everything to the country, if people are deserving of what I work hard for. I can retire and walk away, but if I do that, I'm showing the world that we Filipinos easily give up. "What keeps me going is my goal, my goal for the country. We all want to win a gold medal in the Olympics and for how many years no one has done it yet? "In sports, it's not always miracles. Almost all the time, you have to work hard for it," she added. By Alicia Turner,

Short movie about Mathias Steiner honoured at AIPS Sport Media Awards

Olympic Channel's production, 'Legends Live On', featuring German weightlifter Matthias Steiner, recognised in 'Video Short Feature' category at the second edition of the 2019 AIPS Sport Media Awards. The winners were announced at a ceremony in Budapest, Hungary on Monday night. An impressive 1746 award submissions from 125 countries where whittled down to a final 'top three' for each of the 11 different categories. The 12-member AIPS Sport Media Awards jury and AIPS President Gianni Merlo voted for the final winners, while local hero three-time Olympic gold medallist swimmer Katinka Hosszu and World Athletics President Sebastian Coe were on hand to present some of the awards. Olympic Channel production Legends Live On - featuring the incredible story of German Olympic weightlifting champion Matthias Steiner - finished third in the Short Video Production category. Matthias Steiner's triumph in the face of adversity Shortlisted Olympic Channel production Legends Live On features Matthias Steiner, and his inspiring gold medal. The German weightlifter became Olympic champion at the Beijing 2008 Olympics, shortly after the unexpected death of his wife in a car accident. See on the link below how the Olympic legend has now overcome diabetes and weight issues to lead a healthier life. He has also become a best-selling author in Germany, inspiring future generations to lead healthier lives as well. LEGENDS LIVE ON - Matthias

IWF EXECUTIVE BOARD APPOINTS RICHARD H. MCLAREN TO LEAD INVESTIGATION INTO ARD ALLEGATIONS

Rome, Italy – January 31, 2020 – The International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) Executive Board today voted decisively to appoint Professor Richard H. McLaren to independently investigate allegations of impropriety surrounding President Dr. Tamas Ajan and the IWF. “I wish to thank the IWF for their trust in me and my team. As independent investigators we intend to follow every lead with the ultimate objective of uncovering the truth,” said Professor McLaren. Professor McLaren, CEO of McLaren Global Sport Solutions Inc., will be Investigation Chair. Under his direction, Martin Dubbey will be Chief Investigator and Steven Berryman will be lead Financial Investigator. Professor McLaren and his team have extensive experience in investigating misconduct in sport, including the 2016 investigation into allegations of state-sponsored doping by the Russian Federation. They will now look into the claims made by the Der Herr de Heber documentary on Germany’s ARD network on 5 January 2020. The documentary claimed leadership of the IWF, including President Ajan, participated in and/ or had knowledge of financial irregularities, corruption, doping control distribution, doping sample manipulation, doping payment irregularities, doping activities in specific nations and nepotism. In announcing the appointment of McLaren, IWF Acting President Ursula Garza Papandrea said, “As I have said in the past, we need someone who is not a friend of weightlifting to look into these serious and historic allegations. But if we are to get to the bottom of this, we required an investigator whose findings will be trusted and undeniable. That is why we selected Professor McLaren. I thank my fellow Executive Board members for their courage in taking this extraordinary, but necessary action.” Professor McLaren will be free to follow the evidence wherever that may lead. A whistleblower line will be set up and a separate announcement will be made when that is operational. The Investigation, led by Professor McLaren, is entirely independent. Professor McLaren will use the newly established IWF Oversight and Integrity Commission as his liaison to the IWF Executive Board. Professor McLaren is empowered to take whatever measures he sees fit to ensure each and every allegation is fully investigated and

TAWA Executive Board Resigned

Considering the reputation of the sport and following the code of ethics and aligning to the principles of good governance, the Executive Board of the Thai Amateur Weightlifting Association, including the President, Mrs Boossabba Yodbangtoey, resigned from their respective positions, effective from the 30th of January

Anti-Doping and Scientific Seminar in Antalya

Turkish Weightlifting Federation organized an Anti-Doping and Scientific Seminar within the 2019 IWF Development Program. The 3-days seminar taking place in Antalya, Turkey aimed to educate the Turkish coaches who were present with an amazing 157 people. The lecturers from various national Universities gave information about Traditional weightlifting training, Plyometric and pull training and its effects on strength and performance, how to strengthen weak muscle groups, Injuries and protection in weightlifting among other lectures. Dr. Rüştü Güner, General Director of Turkish Anti-Doping Commission talked about the supplements and drew the participants' attention to the non controlled supplements. Also, Dr. Dogan Atlihan, member of the IWF Medical Committee informed the coaches about the work of the Committee and mentioned some sports injuries that occurred during the past IWF World Championships in his presentation. The President of the Turkish Weightlifting Federation, Mr Tamer Taspinar closed the highly informative