News

IWF Executive Board members visit USA Weightlifting Championships/ US Olympic Team Trials

3 times Olympic Champion, Mr. Pyrros Dimas and IWF Women's Commission Chair, MS Moira Lassen, both IWF Executive Board members visited Salt Lake City, Utah on the weekend to open the US Olympic Team Trials. The USA Weightlifting Federation also hosted multiple "meet and greet" opportunities with Mr. Dimas for athletes and coaches alike. Mr. Dimas declared the Olympic Trials open while Ms. Lassen wished the athletes and coaches the best for the competition. Congratulations to USAW Chair Ms. Ursula Garza Papandrea and CEO Mr. Phil Andrews for a successful

Continental Qualification current standing

As the European and Asian Championships also Qualification events for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games concluded recently, here is an update on the countries that earned quota: Europe: Men TUR ITA CZE HUN GBR FIN SVK Women GBR ITA FRA POL GER ESP Asia: Men JPN IRQ MAS KGZ SYR IND TKM Women VIE UZB IND MGL PHI TKM Check out the latest info on the Rio 2016 Olympic Games

New Youth World Record!

LOPEZ LOPEZ Yeison (COL) set 2 Youth World Records in the Clean and Jerk in the Men's 77kg bodyweight category with 186kg and in the Total with 334kg at the Pan-American Junior Championships in San Salvador, ESA. 3 athletes also set Pan American Youth Records. Check out the results

IWF Anti-Doping Seminar in Tashkent

Under the framework of the IWF Development Program an IWF Anti-Doping Seminar was held in cooperation with the Asian Weightlifting Federation on the occasion of the Asian Continental Qualification Event in Tashkent. The Seminar was a great success, with more than 90 participants from 30 Asian Member Federations. The Anti-Doping Education is one of the top priorities of the IWF and the Anti-Doping Commission thus wishes to ensure the protection of the clean athletes on their road to Rio! The IWF Anti-Doping Commission Chairman Dr Patrick Schamasch gave a through explanation about the overall anti-doping system and called upon all the athletes and coaches to fulfil their responsibilities. The IWF will continue its committed fight against doping and will do its best to spread awareness of rights and obligations connected to anti-doping along with the latest news and developments. Let’s lift CLEAN and

Pyrros Dimas lights the Olympic Flame in Athens

Three times Οlympic Gold Medallist Pyrros Dimas accompanied by his children lit the cauldron with the Olympic Flame in front of Parthenon temple atop of the Acropolis Hill in Athens on Tuesday, April 26, 2016. After traveling Greece for six days, the Rio 2016 Olympic Torch arrived on Tuesday at the Acropolis in Athens. The cauldron at the Acropolis Museum was lit by the secretary general of the Hellenic Olympic Committee, Manolis Katsiadakis. The sacred light had crossed the Acropolis in the hands of the Olympic champion Pyrros Dimas, Voula Kozomboli, Georgia Ellinaki, Aggeliki Karapataki, Evi Moraitidou, Virginia Kravarioti and Nikos Deligiannis. The President of the International Olympic Academy Isidoros Kouvelos carried the Olympic Flame at Dionysiou Areopagitou Street. Dimitris Valasiadis, Hellenic Weightlifting Federation President was one of the 450 people to carry the torch in Greece. The Olympic Flame will remain overnight at the Acropolis Museum until Wednesday, April 27, when it will be formally handed over to Brazil at a ceremony at the Panathenian Stadium in Athens, the venue for the historic 1896 Olympic Games that launched the modern Olympic movement. The flame arrives in Brazil on May 3, and will be relayed across the vast country by about 12,000 torchbearers before the Aug. 5 opening ceremony in Rio de Janeiro's Maracana Stadium. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis) Source and more photos

Two-Time Olympic Champion Tommy Kono dies at 85

Tamio “Tommy” Kono, a two-time Olympic weightlifting champion who also coached the U.S. team at the Montreal 1976 Olympic Games, passed away on Sunday in Honolulu due to complications from liver disease. He was 85. Born in Sacramento, California, on June 27, 1930, Kono and his family, which were of Japanese descent, were relocated to Tuke Lake internment camp during World War II. It was there that he was introduced to weightlifting. He burst onto the international scene at the Helsinki 1952 Olympic Games, winning the first of back-to-back Olympic titles (he also won silver in 1960). That began an impressive string of eight Olympic and world championships from 1952 until 1959. In total, he won 11 golds, two silvers and a bronze at the Olympic, world championship or Pan American Games level in three different weight classes (67.5 kg., 75 kg. and 82.5 kg.). Before he retired in 1964, he had set 26 world, seven Olympic and eight Pan American Games records. In addition to his weightlifting career, Kono also excelled in the realm of bodybuilding, winning the title of “Mr. World” in 1954 and “Mr. Universe” in 1955, 1957 and 1961. Kono remained active in the sport, coaching the national and Olympic teams of Mexico and West Germany before serving as coach of the U.S. Olympic team in Montreal. He developed the joint bands that competitive international weightlifters wear on their knees and elbows, authored two books and numerous articles on weightlifting and also rose to the level of Category 1 as an international referee. According to his website, www.tommykono.com, Kono was the boyhood idol and inspiration of Arnold Schwarzenegger. He was inducted into the International Weightlifting Hall of Fame in 1993 and also is a member of the U.S. Olympic Committee Hall of Fame and the Association of Oldetime Barbell and Strongmen Hall of Fame. He was recognized as one of the One Hundred Golden Olympians at the Atlanta 1996 Olympic Games. In 2005, Tommy Kono received the title of “Lifter of the Century” from the IWF. The International Weightlifting Federation as well as the weightlifting community presents its sincere condolences to the Family of Mr. Kono. Source: USA