News

The “Special Jury Prize” Goes To The Olympic Channel For Its “Olympic Day Workout” Program!

The Olympic Channel is a web television created by the International Olympic Committee. Since its launch in 2014, it has broadcast live events, documentaries and TV archives related to the Olympic Games. “Olympic Day Workout” is an online campaign organized to celebrate the Olympic Day on June 23. Olympians around the globe were encouraged to take on a 24 hour live training challenge. This session enabled them to interact with their fans and help them to stay active and in good physical and mental health. In just one day, the campaign generated 19 million printouts, 3 million video views and 120,000 interactions on social media. Joel Bouzou, President and Founder of Peace and Sport, said: “This entirely online event organized by the Olympic Channel not only brought together Olympians throughout the world, it also made it possible for them to develop a special bond with their fans despite the health context. The “Olympic Day Workout” campaign played an essential role in promoting the values of sport and it demonstrated the importance of ‘role models’ in moving towards a fairer and more inclusive world. My heartfelt congratulations to the Olympic Channel for this inspiring initiative and for winning the Special Jury Prize ” Mary Byrne, Editor-in-chief, Olympic Channel, declared : “We are very humbled and honoured to receive this Special Jury Prize recognition from Peace and Sport. The events of this year tested all of us, and we wanted fans to stay inspired, to keep moving, to stay strong – both physically and mentally. For Olympic Day, we wanted to emphasize that we can still all come together and participate in sport together – no matter our circumstances. To provide a little extra motivation we asked top Olympians and athletes to join us in a social-first activation, bringing fans and their favourite athletes together for an unforgettable 24-hour live workout challenge across 20 global time zones.” The “Special Jury Prize” rewards a significant action for peace through sport. The nominees for this 2020 edition were: the Olympique Lyonnais Foundation, the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) and the Olympic Channel. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZs-GNKSHM0&feature=emb_title Source: Peace and Sport The "Special Jury Prize" category was presented by three-times Olympic Champion and IWF Executive Board Member Mr Pyrros Dimas and Marlène Harnois, Olympic Medallist in Taekwondo. IWF also took part in the Olympic Day Workout with Sarah Davies (GBR) and Mirco Scaratino (ITA) who presented the official workout routine live on the IWF YouTube Channel on 23 June

POSTPONEMENT OF THE 2021 IWF JUNIOR WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS

Following the meeting of the IWF Executive Board on 15 December, we would like to kindly inform you that the 2021 IWF Junior World Championships was POSTPONED to May 2021 due to the developing situation of Covid-19. IWF is already in contact with IOC to explore all the possibilities to extend the Qualification period of Tokyo 2020 in order to maintain the Gold Level Status of 2021 IWF Junior World Championships. Official communication together with the new date and revised regulation will be published as soon as

Vacancy

The IWF is seeking a Legal Counsel (50-60%) (Lausanne, Switzerland). Application deadline: 15 January 2021 The job description and requirements can be found

IWF Development Program Technical Official Seminar – Japan Weightlifting Association

For the successful Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games (to be held in 2021), a Technical Official Seminar was held for selected ITOs and NTOs for Tokyo 2020 during 22-23 November 2020 at Shin-Yokohama Prince Hotel. IWF Technical Committee Secretary Ms. Reiko Kato Chinen conducted the seminar, 2 ITOs and 17 NTOs participated on-site, including Mr. Jun-ichi Okada, IWF Coaching and Research Committee Member. One NTO participated online. On the first day, after Mr. Tetsuo Komiyama, Japan Weightlifting Association General Secretary opened the seminar, 4 topics were presented by Ms. Chinen – Tokyo 2020 Update after Postponement of the Games, IF Flow in Tokyo International Forum (Tokyo 2020 Weightlifting Venue), Athletes’ Outfit, and Authorised Identifications for Tokyo 2020 (IOC Rule 50). During the evening, each Technical Officials made a short presentation on statement of determination for officiating at Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. On the second day, after Ms. Chinen explained about Video Playback Technology, participants were divided into 4 groups to perform Role Plays to review Weigh-in procedure and to study/improve Chief Marshal skill. For the Role Plays, various tricky scenarios made participants remind important points for each role. Only a few days in prior to the seminar, increasing tendency of COVID-19 started especially in the big cities (3rd wave). Japan Weightlifting Association urgently discussed if the seminar should be kept as originally planned, but decided to carry out the event with strengthened countermeasures such as: Change of the hotel room type from double to single Individual countermeasures during the trip between home and seminar site Submission of health inquiry sheet Measuring body temperature upon the arrival and at the beginning of Day2 Wearing a mask whenever in the meeting room or in the hotel Wearing a mask plus face shield while carrying out Role Play Providing disinfectant Change of the style of taking dinner – from round table to meeting table, using one large folding table for one person with 2 meters distance.   The invitation letter sent by Japan Weightlifting Association to participants many weeks in prior to the seminar had also requested daily self-health check. Self-health check will be continued by each participant for 2 weeks more after the seminar. Shin-Yokohama Prince Hotel is a group hotel of The Prince Park Tower Tokyo, where all participants from Japan, China, USA and Russia in 2020 Artistic Gymnastics Friendship and Solidarity Competition stayed. This Competition was held by FIG (the International Gymnastics Federation) on 8 November 2020 in Tokyo under the values of excellence, friendship and solidarity, but also to test all aspects on COVID-19 countermeasures such as PCR tests (before the departure of the country, upon the arrival, in the hotel etc.), restriction of activities, sport and venue operation (disinfection etc.) and the way for meals. The hotel used for this IWF Development Program had already planned to provide a big meeting room before the start of this 3rd wave of COVID-19, but accepted all the demands from Japan Weightlifting Association including last-minutes change requests, furthermore used the same way as applied in FIG event whichever applicable for this seminar. At the end, participants of the Seminar, who normally organize national or regional events, also realized that they need to be prepared for these kinds of possible urgent logistics changes under the pandemic for near future events in Japan. JWA greatly appreciates the contribution of the IWF and IWF Development Program, also for Prince Hotels, Inc., the owner company of the

IWF Statement Regarding the Reduction of Weightlifting Quota Places at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games

"Clean weightlifters continue to pay a woefully heavy price for inadequate governance and for those -- from a relatively limited number of countries -- who tried to take shortcuts to success at London 2012 and Beijing 2008. Thanks to help from independent experts like our partners at the ITA, we have already reformed the IWF’s anti-doping practices. And thanks to the help of independent experts, we are now reforming the IWF’s governance. I believe we can meet the IOC’s criteria for remaining on the Paris 2024 Olympic programme and even reach the point where we restore Olympic weightlifting opportunities for a new generation of clean weightlifters. We have already embarked on a journey towards radical governance reform. But we must be under no illusion about the scope and scale of change

Open Championships of Turkmenistan and Election of the National Olympic Committee

The National Weightlifting Federation of Turkmenistan held the Open Championship of Turkmenistan between November 25-28, 2020, on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the Permanent Neutrality of Turkmenistan. The competition was held in a highly organized level at the Ashgabat Olympic Complex, the venue which hosted the 2018 IWF World Championships. The Minister of Sports and Youth Policy of Turkmenistan and several officials has attaned to the medal ceremony. Winners were awarded with gold, silver and bronze medals and with special awards. Next to the competition, the National Olympic Committee of Turkmenistan held its election last week where Mr. Charygeldi Mammedov, General Secretary of the Weightlifting Federation of Turkmenistan was elected as Executive Board