News

Obituary for Pedro Serrano Negrón

The Puerto Rico Weightlifting Federation informs with great sorrow the passing of one of its most outstanding athletes, coach and Technical Official, Mr. Pedro Serrano Negrón. He departed this physical world on November 9th, but he left a fruitful history for generations to come.  From 1954 to 1978 he participated in more than 35 international weightlifting competitions earning medals in Central American and Caribbean Games as well as in Pan American Games.  He also participated in Olympic Games.  In 1970 he became a Category #1 Technical Official and since then has been the “Professor” for all of us aspiring to obtain such honor.  He was also the first person involved in the Spanish version of the IWF Rulebook, which has been edited several times based on his initial endeavor.  He remained active as a Master lifter positioning himself as one of the best in his weight class at world level.  The weightlifting family in North, Central and South America can remember him as a dedicated coach for several countries besides his country, Puerto Rico.  Our prayers go to his immediate family members and to the extended family in the world of weightlifting. Source: David

International Federations work together to improve elite athlete health and global health

More than 40 medical specialists from International Federations (IFs) and world leading experts addressed important topics regarding elite athlete and global health during an ASOIF workshop, held from 7 to 8 November 2017 in Lausanne, Switzerland. Organised by ASOIF’s Medical & Science Consultative Group (AMSCG) and opened by ASOIF President Francesco Ricci Bitti, the event had the following objectives: to establish priorities for improving athlete health; to encourage IF medical chairs to leverage their sport to promote global health; to identify practical strategies to address the health priorities; and to encourage IF collaboration. The IWF Was represented by Dominik Dorr, Member if the IWF Medical Committee and Patrick Schamasch, IWF Anti-Doping commission Chairman. The workshop featured presentations and discussions about the following six key topics: global health through sport; using sport events to promote physical activity; athlete mental health; prevention of harassment and abuse in sport; RED-S (Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport); and (non-prohibited) medication abuse in elite sport. Dr. Dorr presented on the topic of “Medical provisions by the Local Organizing Committee”. Participants heard IF case studies and learnt from experts from the World Health Organisation (WHO), universities and the International Olympic Committee (IOC). The IOC presented their new toolkit, aimed at helping IFs and National Olympic Committees (NOCs) to develop and implement athlete-safeguarding policies and procedures to protect athletes from harassment and abuse. The IF medical chairs participating in the workshop agreed to undertake the following action: to plan, implement and evaluate programs to promote physical activity to improve global health; to adopt and adapt the IOC toolkit to ensure a safe sport environment; to develop initiatives to support athlete mental health; to take measures to facilitate team physician travel to IF events; to raise awareness of RED-S in our sports; and to employ interventions  to decrease the practice of medication abuse in sport. The workshop followed-up on action-proposals agreed on during last year’s IF Forum and ASOIF research into activities and priorities for its international member federations with respect to athlete and global health. Source:

Latest edition of the South American Weightlifting Confederation Magazine

The third issue of the South American Weightlifting Confederation Magazine is out and available online. It contains information about the latest competitions such as the Pan-American Championships held in Miami, USA or the 29th Summer Universiade in Taipei. Besides the different educational seminars held in the South American countries there is an article about Mr. Jose Quiñones, Vice President of the IWF, President of the South American Weightlifting Confederation who visited the IWF Headquarters in Budapest. Among other interesting topics, an Anti-Doping essay is also included. The magazine is available in Spanish language. Check it out to read

Final Entries for Anaheim are up

The Final Entry List for the 2017 IWF World Championships Anaheim, USA has been published on our website. Check out the list HERE. The IWF reserves the right to apply changes to the list in line with its rules and regulations. The Anaheim Convention Center will stage the competition from 28 Nov until 5 Dec 2017. If you want to watch the competition on site, make sure to get your

Successful debut of the ECOC system at V4 Cup

The  IWF has tested out first time in history the Electronic Change of Call (ECOC) - Tabs replacing Athletes' Card - that will be implemented in future events; all the teams were happily accepting and using the new system. The main focus is that the coaches are using their tablets and they can electronically change the weight of attempts for the athletes. Based on the feedback from the coaches IWF will further develop the system to give more user friendly experience. These experiences and feedback will be the subject of discussion for the Technical Committee meeting at the World Championships in Anaheim, USA. Three countries attended the Visegrad 4 Cup in Prague, CZE (Hungary, Slovakia and the host Czech Republic) where 40 coaches, athletes and weightlifting specialist participated on 3-4 of November, 2017. An Anti-Doping seminar was held by Dr. Eva Nyirfa about IWF Anti-Doping Rules with special regard to Whereabouts submission, retirement, result management, and Therapeutic Use Exemptions (TUE) to gain extra knowledge of Anti-Doping. At the second part of the seminar, a local weightlifter has given useful information about sport nutrition advises. On the 4th of November, the team competitions were taken place where the host country, Czech Republic finished first, then Hungary and Slovakia made it to the last place on the podium.    

IWF Development Program, National Level Technical Official (TO) seminar

The Weightlifting Federation of Iceland recently organized a national level Technical Official (TO) seminar in the framework of the IWF Development Program. The organizers invited Taisto Kuoppala from Finland to Iceland to teach during the 2-days seminar. Mr. Kuoppala has been active referee for over 40 years and worked in many Olympic Games and World Championships. The seminar covered all the rules of the IWF TCRR as well as the new changes made in 2017, accompanied with video and practical examples of lifts. Ten participants (5 male and 5 female) finished a written exam at the end of the seminar to become national level TO, those participants later used their newly acquired knowledge as TO in the National Junior Championships taking place the weekend after. Larus Pall Palsson was assisting Taisto Kuoppala with the seminar. Larus Pall Palsson also became the first Icelander in history to receive Cat.1 TO license in the European Youth Championships in Kosavo after the