News

Kazan is ready to kick off

The IWF Grand Prix - 6th President’s Cup of the Russian Federation will take place in Kazan on 19-20th March, the preparations of the event are coming to an end. At an international press conference held today in Ak Bars Sport Hall Mr Attila Adamfi, IWF Director General greeted the hosts and representatives of the media on behalf of Dr Tamas Ajan, IWF President. He said that he is always pleased to visit the „Sport Capital of Russia” which has hosted several international competitions in different sports. The weightlifters come home to Kazan, as European Championships, Universiade, Junior World Championships have been held here before. He emphasized that it is the first individual Olympic qualification event in 2016, this is why it has great importance. Several participants of the Grand Prix will compete at the Rio Olympic Games, too. Mr Sergey Syrtsov, President of the Russian Weightlifting Federation reminded the audience that after Belgorod, Saint Petersburg, Moscow, Noyabrsk and Grozny the President’s Cup is held for the 6th time. 41 athletes are expected to compete representing 12 countries, including outstanding Russian weightlifters like Mogushkov Chingiz and from Tatarstan Andrey Demanov and Maria Petrova. He highly evaluated the professional level of the organisation. Mr Vladimir Leonov, Minister of Youth Affairs and Sport of the Republic of Tatarstan thanked for the possibility of holding this prestigious international event in

Task force and targeted reanalysis before Rio

IOC also welcomes new WADA-led anti-doping task force in lead-up to this summer’s Games. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) have announced that selected samples from the Olympic Games London 2012 and Beijing 2008 are being reanalysed ahead of this summer’s Games in Rio de Janeiro, in another initiative aimed at protecting the clean athletes. At the request of and funded by the IOC, WADA has also set up a task force to gather information and intelligence; identify any gaps in pre-Games testing; and coordinate any extra testing that may be needed through the International Federations (IFs), National Anti-Doping Organisations (NADOs) and, if necessary, WADA itself. The WADA-run task force, which is coordinating intelligence-gathering with the NADOs of Australia, Denmark, Japan, South Africa, the UK and USA, will identify athletes or groups of athletes who should be included in registered testing pools, and those who the IOC should test during the four-week period of the Olympic Games Rio 2016. The reanalysis of hundreds of samples from London 2012 and Beijing 2008 is already under way. The IOC and WADA have together identified and agreed on the sports and countries being targeted. This includes in particular athletes likely to compete in Rio de Janeiro who also competed in London and Beijing 2008, and specific methods of analysis where there have been advances during the time since Beijing 2008 and London 2012. “The aim of the programme is to prevent athletes who cheated in London or Beijing, and got away with it because we didn’t have as advanced methods of analysis as we do now, from competing in Rio de Janeiro,” IOC Medical and Scientific Director Richard Budgett said during the WADA Anti-Doping Organisation Symposium taking place from 14 to 16 March in Lausanne. “The results will come in a number of weeks or months.” The specialist task force will advise the IOC and the Rio 2016 Organising Committee who they should be testing, both in and out of competition. This intelligence will be used to refine the testing plan day by day during the period of the Games (beginning with the opening of the Athletes’ Village on 24 July, and ending with the Closing Ceremony on 21 August), to produce the most effective and efficient testing programme possible. “We are trying passionately to protect those clean athletes who are going to Rio 2016,” Dr Budgett said. “And the best way to do that is to catch the cheats and deter the cheats before we get to Rio de Janeiro. So that’s why we launched this initiative with the task force even before the Olympic Games open.” The measures are in line with the change of philosophy to protect the clean athletes outlined in Olympic Agenda 2020, the IOC’s strategic roadmap for the future of the Olympic Movement. Earlier this month, the IOC Executive Board agreed to delegate the decisions on alleged anti-doping rule violations during the Olympic Games to an independent body. A new Anti-doping Division of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) will handle cases from the Olympic Games 2016 onwards. The move follows the Resolution of the Fourth Olympic Summit to make anti-doping testing independent of sports organisations. Source:

IWF Executive Board Meeting in Rio

The IWF Executive Board had its meeting in Rio de Janeiro, BRA – city to host in august the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. After the opening speech of Dr. Tamas Ajan, IWF President, Mr. Carlos Nuzman, President of the Rio 2016 Organizing Committee welcomed all members. Accompanied by Mr. Agberto Guimaraes, Sports Director and Mr. Pedro Meloni, Weightlifting Sport Manager, the Members of the Executive Board received detailed information on the latest weightlifting and Games related topics. Major issues discussed during the meeting were related to the Olympic Qualification events, future steps to be made focusing on the IOC Agenda 2020 and good governance. With special focus on the upcoming Rio 2016 Olympic Games, the Executive Board visited the weightlifting venues - including competition and training sites. They felt confident that weightlifting events of the Games will be well organized and very

Long-time Bulgarian weightlifting official Nikola Mollov dies

The Bulgarian Weightlifting Federation  is saddened to inform the weightlifting community about the death of its former General Secretary/Executive Director Nikola Mollov. Mr. Mollov was an active official in both the EWF and the IWF - through 13 years member of the Auditor Committee of the IWF. The IWF offers its condolences to the Mollov

WARNING – Предупреждение – AVISO (MILDRONATE)

WARNING Referring to our previous warnings we would like to reiterate this very important message concerning a new prohibited substance! The 2016 List of Prohibited Substances and Methods become effective as of the 1stJanuary 2016 and since this date a new substance called MILDRONATE (Meldonium) is considered as prohibited! The IWF Anti-Doping Commission would like to specifically call everyone’s attention to the most used trade names for the substance are: mildronate, meldonium, Quaterin, Kvaretin, THP. Please note that this is not an exhaustive list. There may be other medications, supplements which could contain mildronate (labelled or not labelled). According to recent scientific publications of the WADA accredited laboratories Cologne and Moscow, 2-17 % of doping control samples collected in 2014 and 2015 contained mildronate. There are already multiple findings for mildronate in other sports in 2016. The IWF ADC strongly advise everyone to carefully review the prohibited list and comply accordingly!   Предупреждение В продолжение наших предыдущих предупреждений мы желаем особо отметить это очень важное сообщение относительно нового запрещенного вещества! 1 января 2016 года вступает в силу Список запрещенных субстанций и методов 2016 года, и с этого времени новый препарат под названием MILDRONATE (мельдоний) рассматривается как запрещенный! Антидопинговая комиссия IWF желает особо обратить ваше внимание на наиболее часто используемые торговые наименования препаратов, в которых используется это вещество: милдронат, мельдоний, Quaterin, Kvaretin, ТНР. Обратите внимание, что это неисчерпывающий список. Могут существовать и другие лекарства, добавки, содержащие милдронат (маркированные или немаркированные). Согласно последним научным публикациям аккредитованных ВАДА лабораторий в Кельне и Москве, 2-17% образцов, собранных на допинг-контроль в 2014 и 2015 годах содержали милдронат. В других видах спорта в 2016 году милдронат уже был обнаружен. IWF ADC настоятельно советует всем внимательно изучить список запрещенных веществ и действовать соответственно!   AVISO Refiriéndose a nuestros avisos anteriores, quisiéramos reiterar este mensaje muy importante sobre una nueva sustancia prohibida. La Nueva Lista de Sustancias y Métodos Prohibidos es válida desde el 1 de enero de 2016 y desde esta fecha una nueva sustancia llamada MILDRONATE (Meldonium) está considerada como prohibida. La Comisión de Antidopaje de la IWF quisiera llamar específicamente la atención de todo el mundo sobre los nombres comerciales más utilizados de esta sustancia: mildronate, meldonium, Quaterin, Kvaretin, HTP. Por favor téngase en cuenta que esta lista no es completa. Puede haber otros medicamentos, suplementos que podrían contener mildronate (etiquetados o no etiquetados). Según las últimas publicaciones científicas de los laboratorios de Colonia y Moscú, ambos acreditados de WADA (Agencia Mundial Antidopaje), 2-17% de las muestras recogidas en 2014 y 2015 contuvieron mildronate. Ya hay varios resultados de mildronate en otros deportes en 2016. La Comisión de Antidopaje de la IWF aconseja firmemente que se revise con cuidado la lista de sustancias prohibidas y se cumpla como

International Federation Women in Leadership Forum celebrates International Women’s Day

IWF Executive Board member Moira Lassen and IWF Women's Commission member Karoliina Lundahl attended a forum about women's role in leadership positions in sports. The forum was held in Lausanne, Switzerland, around the International Women's Day and arranged by International Olympic Committee (IOC) and Association of Summer Olympic International Federations (ASOIF). Guest speakers from summer Olympic sports such as wrestling, rugby, triathlon and weightlifting presented case studies in how the role of women in sports has changed in the past decades. Some decades ago the discussion lied in increasing women's participation in sports. This goal has been achieved as many international federations can show gender equality in athlete participation numbers. However, today's discussion lies within the need to bring women into leadership positions as women's participation numbers are very low in leadership positions as well as working on the field as coaches and referees. Wrestling presented their case with the crude reminder of happenings of 2013 as the sport lost its Olympic status. The sport had to reinvent itself and it looked for resources within the sport. They focused on bringing in more girls and women into the sport by launching Sport Mobility promotions such as #SUPER8 and #EACHONEBRINGONE. Within the Super 8  promotion they focused on introducing eight different women champions to the world in order to gain awareness about the sport amidst girls; the Each One Bring One promotion focused on that each athlete should bring another athlete to the sport. Another important focus was to include women in the Olympic Solidarity coaching program and because of this there are now 15.5% women on the field as coaches. With great input from women champions of the sport, wrestling regained its spot as an Olympic Sport and has created a new international federation called United World Wrestling. The successful Social Mobility program in wrestling is based on four basic pillars which can be implemented in other sports. The first pillar is to examine best practices and borrow what's already out there. The second pillar is that one backs up the message with facts and research. The third pillar cries out for turning policies into concrete action. And the last pillar calls for continuous action: KEEP GOING! IWF Executive Board members Moira Lassen and José Quiñones were guest speakers in the forum. Lassen gave a personal presentation about her life from coming into the sport as a young mother of a weightlifter into the first female board member in our sport. She shared her pathway which at times was troubled as she learned good sports government by putting in numerous voluntary hours into the sport. In the upcoming year Lassen as the Chair of the Women's Commission will present the Executive Board with three important initiatives in order to achieve IOC's Agenda 2020 recommendations: Implementation of a new female weight category from seven to eight in order to promote gender equality; implementation of a mandatory female Vice President position within the constitutional electoral process; and engage the Executive Board to register in the United Nations #HEFORSHE campaign. Quiñones spoke as the President of Peruvian Olympic Committee about the cultural barriers that women face in everyday life and what the Peruvian Olympic Committee has done to raise the participation numbers of women in sports. He called for cooperation across the playing field - in both women and men leaders - to increase the numbers of women in leadership roles. This IOC Forum was chosen to be held on the International Women's Day (IWD) March 8. The theme for the IWD 2016 is #PledgeForParity where everyone can pledge to take a concrete step to help achieve gender equality more quickly. As the IWD official website states: "[It can be]... to help women and girls achieve their ambitions, call for gender-balanced leadership, respect and value difference, develop more inclusive and flexible cultures or root out workplace bias. Each of us can be a leader within our own spheres of influence and commit to take pragmatic action to accelerate gender parity." (From Karoliina Lundahl/Moira