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IWF120y/24 – 1984: Dean Lukin, the only Olympic gold for Australia

In a country where Swimming is a national pride (the sport brought more than one-third of the medals won at the Olympics), Australia could however shine at the highest level in weightlifting on one occasion: in 1984. In Los Angeles – where the Olympic Games were boycotted by the Soviet Union and its traditional allies – Dinko (Dean) Lukin managed to bring home what is the sole Australian Olympic gold so far in our sport. Born in 1960 in Sydney, his family moved to Port Lincoln (South Australia) when he was only five. At 16, his talent for weightlifting was noticed by who would be his future coach, Leon Holme. Practically at the same time, he becomes a full-time fisherman, spending many months of the year at sea fishing tuna. His training conditions were far from ideal – in an old tin shed -, but he kept on improving his performances. Competing in the +110kg, he achieves his major international result in 1982, winning the gold (Total of 377.5kg) at the Commonwealth Games in Brisbane. Two years later, at the Olympics, Lukin snatches 172.5kg and then successfully lifts 240kg in the Clean & Jerk for a winning performance of 412.5kg. At the 1986 Edinburgh Commonwealth Games, he revalidates his title (392.5kg), in what would be his last international success. In 1985, he was inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame. Australia has three more Olympic weightlifting medallists: Vern Barberis (bronze in 1952), Robert Kabbas (silver in 1984), and Stefan Botev (bronze in 1996). Among women, there isn’t any podium presence for the time being: in Paris 2024, Eileen Cikamatana was close to a medal but ended up finishing

IWF120y/23 – 2019: IWF and ITA together in the fight against doping

Starting in 2019 – the agreement had been signed in November 2018, at the IWF World Championships in Ashgabat (TKM) – the IWF partnered with the International Testing Agency (ITA) for the development of a transparent and independent strategy in the fight against doping. Since then, this collaboration has been pivotal for the development of weightlifting and the improvement of the IWF’s status within the Olympic Movement. In 2025 – the contract with the ITA has been recently renovated until the end of 2028 – the International Testing Agency is responsible for all activities related to IWF’s anti-doping programme. These activities include: Risk assessment; Test distribution planning and management; In and out-of-competition testing; Therapeutic Use Exemption (TUE) management; Athlete Biological Passport programme; Result management; Long-term storage and re-analysis of samples; Support to the IWF’s educational programmes. This last point is of paramount importance, and regular Clean Sport seminars are organised within the frame of the IWF major events, namely the Junior and Youth World Championships. These initiatives aim at providing senior and younger athletes, as well as their support personnel, all the relevant information on this topic (under the general motto “I Lift Clean”). Commenting on this fruitful relationship, IWF President Mohammed Jalood recently said: “We are extremely satisfied with this partnership, as it allowed us to pursue in a transparent and independent way our anti-doping strategy. Weightlifting definitively changed from the moment we partnered with the ITA – and this was essential for our credibility and growth as an Olympic sport. We are now a respected International Federation that operated a structural change in the way it looks at this essential

IWF120y/22 – 1972: The end of the Press movement

Historically considered one of the basic weightlifting exercises, the Press movement - whereby the bar is lifted onto the chest/shoulder level and then elevated overhead – had been left as one of the three movements in the Olympic programme since the 1928 edition in Amsterdam. However, constant changes in the technique (with lifters performing most of the times in the “limits” of what was allowed and what was not…) and the associated difficulties in judging, led to a proposal to abolish this technique at the 1964 Congress in Tokyo. The change was rejected and four years later, in Mexico City, the delegates had the opportunity to deliberate once more, and the vote remained the same: Press should continue. In Munich, in 1972, with a set of more solid arguments – namely medical advice on the risk of injury due to an exaggerated arching of the lower back – the proposal was finally adopted (33 delegates in favour, 13 against), much to the relief of the weightlifting referees around the world. From 1973 onwards, the “officially allowed cheating” (as Press was unfortunately known around the world), was banned from the programme at the IWF events and, of course, at the Olympics. From that moment on, Snatch and Clean & Jerk are the two movements to be performed by lifters at the international level. For the record, the last recognised World Record in Press was the successful lift of 157.5kg from Bulgaria’s Mladen Kuchev (photo) in the 67.5kg category, precisely at the 1972 Games in

IWF120y/21 – 1948: Rodney Wilkes, the pride of Trinidad and Tobago

Since it started its Olympic participation at the 1948 Games in London, Trinidad and Tobago has amassed until 2024 a total of 19 medals. Fifteen of them come from Athletics, undoubtedly a sport with great tradition and superb athletes in the Caribbean island. But the second best in the medal chart is Weightlifting, with early podium presences precisely in 1948, and 1952. In the 60kg category, Rodney Wilkes (photo) earned the first-ever Olympic medal for his nation, by placing second in the British capital. Born in 1925, Wilkes (nicknamed the “Mighty Midget” or “Midget Atom”) was first noticed when he won gold at the 1946 Central American and Caribbean Games. Arrived in London, Wilkes made a combined result (Press, Snatch, and Clean & Jerk) of 97.5-97.5-122.5-317.5, getting silver behind Egypt’s Mahmoud Fayad. Four years later, in Helsinki (FIN), the Caribbean ace made a better total (100-100-122.5-322.5), but had to content with the bronze. In the Finnish capital, his teammate Lennox Kilgour (1927-2004) would also shine (in the 90kg), with a third place (Total of 402.5kg). In 1951, at the first Pan-American Games, Wilkes was champion, a feat that he also achieved at the 1954 Commonwealth Games. In a time when international travel was not the norm (and was extremely expensive), Wilkes could never compete at the IWF World Championships, mostly organised in Europe during the 1950s. After achieving a fourth place in Melbourne 1956 (Total of 330kg), and failing the qualification for Rome 1960, Wilkes retires from the sport and works as an electrician in Trinidad and Tobago. Some days after completing his 89th anniversary, he passed away in March 2014. Since his (and Kilgour’s) early feats, no more lifters from the Caribbean nation have medalled at the Olympic

A premiere: Weightlifting is added to programme of European Games in 2027!

Weightlifting has been welcomed on to the programme of the European Games for the first time, raising the status of the sport after a strong campaign by the continental federation. Antonio Conflitti, president of the European Weightlifting Federation, has been working since early 2022 to persuade the European Olympic Committees (EOC) to add weightlifting to the European Games programme. “It has been more than three years of diplomacy, starting with a meeting in Rome two months after I was elected,” he said. The EOC General Assembly in Frankfurt  The EOC made the decision to include weightlifting at the 2027 European Games in Istanbul at its general assembly in Frankfurt, which ended on Saturday. Part of the agreement with the EWF is that the competition should be a qualifying event for Los Angeles 2028. “I believe that it would make the EWF the first continental federation to have the continental Games an Olympic qualifier,” Conflitti said. “That makes me very happy.” There will be a full range of Olympic weight categories for men and women in Istanbul, with 300 or more athletes. Conflitti stressed that the precise format cannot be decided immediately, because the IWF is in the process of formulating a qualifying programme for 2028. There will be enough competitions, though, for the European Games to be part of the process. From left to right: Antonio Conflitti (EWF President and IWF EB member), Spyros Capralos (EOC President) and Florian Sperl (German Weightlifting Federation President and IWF EB member) Whether there will be a European Championships as well as the European Games in 2027 is also a decision for the future, Conflitti said. In terms of multi-sport continental Games, Europe has long been behind the rest of the weightlifting world, mainly because the EOC did not support the creation of the European Games until 2012 – and weightlifting has not been a feature until now. The other four continental Games began back in the 1950s and 1960s. When weightlifting was a major feature of the first Asian Games and Pan American Games, the winners included men who made their mark nine decades ago. John Davis, who won Olympic heavyweight gold for the United States in 1948 and 1952, was a winner in Buenos Aires at the first Pan American Games. In the same year, 1951, Iran won all seven medal events at inaugural Asian Games in Delhi. One of the champions was Jafar Salmasi, whose bronze at London 1948 was the first Olympic medal in any sport for Iran. Weightlifting featured at the Pacific Games in 1966 and has been on the Africa Games programme since 1991. All these continental multi-sport Games, held every four years, began decades before the first European Games in Baku, Azerbaijan in 2015. Weightlifting was not among the 20 sports there, nor was it at the 2019 European Games in Minsk, Belarus or the 2023 version in Kraków-Małopolska, Poland. “We need this recognition, we need weightlifting to be part of the European Games. It has always been my target,” said Conflitti. IWF President Mohammed Jalood also commented on this positive outcome: “It is a very important step forward for the development and exposure of our Sport in Europe. Weightlifting is part of other continental games for many years now and the integration on the programme of the European Games demonstrates the growing respect and added-value our Sport brings to major international events.” Weightlifting will also feature for the first time on the programme of the 2027 Jeux de le Francophonie, a sporting and artistic event that is open to nations where French is an official or culturally significant language. Between 30 and 54 nations have taken part at the nine previous Jeux de la Francophonie, which began in 1989 and will be hosted by Armenia in 2027. The Istanbul decision will be good news for host nation Turkey, which has one of the strongest teams in European weightlifting. The continent currently has three Olympic champions– Solfrid Koanda from Norway, Karlos Nasar from Bulgaria and Lasha Talakhadze from Georgia.

IWF120y/20 – 1960: Miyake, a dynasty of success in Japan!

When thinking about weightlifting in Japan, a name is immediately mentioned: Miyake. From 1960 to the present day, members of this family have marked the history of the sport in the country and on the international scene. It all started 65 years ago, at the Rome Olympic Games, when Yoshinobu Miyake gets a silver medal in the 56kg category. He would do better in 1964, at home, with the Olympic title in the 60kg, and would revalidate his title four years later, in Mexico City. He remains the only Olympic champion in weightlifting as of today. But the connection of the Miyake family to the sport would not stop there: Yoshinobu’s brother, Yoshiyuki (six years younger), also travelled to Mexico in that year of 1968 and could celebrate a bronze medal in the same event as his sibling. Between the two brothers, there were also six World Championships titles, between 1962 and 1971. Yoshiyuki has a daughter, born in 1985, Hiromi (photo). Following the steps of her uncle and father, the young talent starts to get noticed at the 2006 IWF World Championships, where she gets the bronze medal in the 48kg category. Two years earlier, she has her first Olympic participation, in Athens, where she is ninth. She will compete in four more editions – with two podium presences, silver in London 2012 and bronze in Rio 2016. In Tokyo 2020ne she bombs out in the Clean & Jerk, in what is her last competition. Hiromi Miyake is presently a member of the IWF Executive