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One Year To Go to Tokyo 2020!

Today it's just One Year To Go to the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games! Weightlifting was the first to open the 'Ready - Steady - Tokyo!' line of Olympic Test Events in its magnificent and iconic venue, the Tokyo International Forum. As 24 July 2020, the opening day of the Games is drawing near, excitement is growing and everybody is looking forward to fantastic Olympic Games in the Japanese capital. Celebrate 'One Year To Go!' with the Technical Officials who tested the weightlifting

Unique IWF Seminar on Mental Training in Uruguay

The Uruguay Weightlifting Federation organized a Mental Training Seminar in Weightlifting in Montevideo, Uruguay thanks to the IWF Development Program. The Federation invited Mr. Jorge Espana, President of Bolivian Weightlifting Federation and a specialist of the subject, to act as the lecturer. There were 25 participants from all around Uruguay. The audience was extremely enthusiastic to learn about mental coaching techniques for weightlifters. The participating coaches were very active eager to be given some new tools that may help improving the coaching of lifters, their mental condition, recovery and, ultimately, their performance. Special emphasis was laid on the role played by the coach on his or her athletes. "The conditions granted for the Seminar were excellent, especially due to the facilities available, and I appreciate the hospitality of the Uruguayan Weightlifting Federation," commented his experiences Mr. Espana. "This seminar had great importance since such content had never been developed in the country and therefore the knowledge of the athletes and coaches was limited. The presentations by Mr. Espana were excellent unfolding all the content in a masterful way and being able to make difficult subjects be understood easily thanks to his communication skills,"  the President of Uruguay Weightlifting Federation, Mr. Julio Lezama shared his opinion after the

Great French Champion Marcel PATERNI passed away

As we learned from the French Weightlifting Federation, the great champion Marcel PATERNI, who was not only a great athlete, but also a great coach passed away recently. Marcel PATERNI, born September 22, 1936, was a French weightlifter who was a bronze medallist at the World Weightlifting Championships in 1958 in Stockholm and in 1961 in Vienna in the middleweight category. He was silver medallist at the European Weightlifting Championships in 1957 and 1958 and bronze medallist at the European Weightlifting Championships in 1961 and 1962. In the light-heavyweight category, he won bronze at the European Weightlifting Championships in 1960 and 1964 and world record holder in press with 150.5 kg in 1959. He participated in three Olympic Games in 1956 in Melbourne, 1960 in Rome and 1964 in Tokyo. After his athletic career, Marcel PATERNI was also a national coach and helped the French team to further success. The IWF and the weightlifting family extend their condolences to the FFHM and the PATERNI

Oceania’s largest weightlifting event concluded

At the sixteenth edition of the currently ongoing Pacific Games, the weightlifting competitions were held between 9th and 13th of July in Apia, the capital of the picturesque island of Samoa. The venue, that was specifically built for weightlifting was the perfect location to host this grandiose triple event, including the Pacific Games, the Oceania Championships (Gold Level Qualification Event) and the Commonwealth Championships (Silver Level Qualification Event) in all three age groups. Jerry Wallwork, President of Samoa WF and his experienced team delivered an excellent show and a well-organized event. Samoa demonstrated again, that it is the powerhouse of weightlifting in Oceania, winning 33 medals (8 women, 25 men). Australia was a close second on the medal table, was left only one medal short compared to Samoa (20 women, 12 men), while Papua New Guinea clinched 25 medals (15 women, 10 men). The rest of the medals spread out widely among the countries and athletes including WLF, ASA, TGA also taking home a prize. On the Commonwealth Championships medal table, India piled up a whopping 45 medals, while Samoa, PNG and New Zealand performed well in this field too. As of the team classification, Nauru, Samoa and Papua New Guinea women and men teams did an outstanding job in all the three competitions. "From the 26 sports present on the Pacific Games, undoubtedly weightlifting was one of the most popular ones beside rugby. Dignitaries regularly visited the competitions including Afioga Tuimalealiifano Vaaletoa Sualauvi II, Samoas Head of State, Prime Minister and many Ministers, the President and CEO of the Pacific Games Council and the President and General Secretary of ONOC. Weightlifting is highly popular in Oceania and enjoys great support from the government and various stakeholders." "It is not the first and hopefully not the last time Samoa organized an excellent Championships," said Dr Tamas Ajan, who was also present at the competition and the OWF annual Congress prior to

Successful Administration and Management Seminar in Bolivia

An Administration and Management Seminar was held in the framework of IWF Development Program in Santa Cruz, Bolivia 4-7 July 2019. Mr Phil Andrews, CEO of USA Weightlifting was the expert of the seminar and presented about many intriguing topics to the audience, such as sports management, administration, promotion, management of economic resources, prevention and education in the fight against doping and fight against sexual harassment. It was a transmission of knowledge and experiences with much intervention of the audience on the problems referred to all the aspects indicated and consequently a strong need to reinforce the knowledge with practice and work. Approximately 20 coaches, technical officials and administrators submitted questions and answers, working on areas such as good governance, Anti-Doping, protection of athletes, emergence and support of Women’s Weightlifting, recruitment and development of athletes, and specific issues in Bolivia related to Government funding and how the Federation might be successful in the face of those challenges. During the course of the Seminar, the participants attended the Bolivian National Championships, which was organized to a high standard and featured promising local athletes. "Thank you to the IWF and Bolivian Weightlifting Federation for the opportunity to assist to develop the sport in the region. There are some clear signs of hope of development for Weightlifting in the nation of Bolivia. There are some growing teams, emerging coaches and a willingness to change the way of thinking in the face of funding challenges." “It’s clear that there is a desire, and sporting ability, for Bolivia to rise in the rankings as a nation,” Mr Andrews summed up his

IWF Coaching Seminar and Open Events in the Czech Republic

The Czech Weightlifting Federation organized a Coaching Seminar within the framework of the IWF Development Program at the Masaryk University in Brno,  28 -30 June 2019. On the same day, unique three-days event called CZECH WEIGHTLIFTING OPEN(CWO) 2019 also started. Friday was dedicated to the IWF Coaching Seminar. The lectures mainly focused on the fields of training methods and nutrition. Later that day, an Anti-Doping Seminar was held by IWF Legal Counsel Ms. Lilla Sági about whereabouts submission, TUE applications, and the iLiftClean Platform. Also, on the first day, a special event was organized solely for university students, where amateur athletes had the opportunity to compete with professional weightlifters. On the second and third day, a Conference was held, debating the topics of sports training and nutrition in strength sports, welcoming everyone who were not only interested in the competition but the scientific parts of the sport too. Both the Conference and competitions were organized by the Czech weightlifting Federation in partnership with the Faculty of Sports Studies on the Masaryk University. Among the forty participants of the IWF Coaching Seminar there were weightlifting coaches, conditioning coaches, and academics as well. Ninety lifters competed in the CWO 2019 and another twenty attended the Conference. The IWF welcomed the initiative and hopes that the Czech Weightlifting Federation will continue its hard work to teach coaches and raise new generation of lifters with different training methods and nutrition to develop the sport of weightlifting in the Czech