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Intense week of activities for the IWF President

The IWF President Mohammed Jalood had an intense week of activities, with successive visits to Kazakhstan, Switzerland, and Armenia. It all started in Astana, the vibrant capital of Kazakhstan, where the President of the Republic Mr Kassym-Jomart Tokayev received the IWF delegation, also comprising the President of the Asian Weightlifting Federation, Mr Mohamed Yousef Al Mana. The two IWF dignitaries were given the 2nd Degree Dostyk (Friendship) Order, awarded to individuals for the promotion of international and civil consensus in society and the promotion of peace, friendship, and cooperation between peoples. The President of the Republic of Kazakhstan Mr Kassym-Jomart Tokayev between Mr Mohamed Yousef Al Mana (AWF President, left) and Mr Mohammed Jalood (IWF President, right) Mr Jalood and Mr Al Mana had the opportunity to discuss the development of weightlifting in the country, a sport with a lot of tradition and good results in Kazakhstan. The IWF President then flew to Switzerland, where he attended in Lausanne (together with the IWF CEO Achilleas Tsogas) the IOC LA28 IF Transition Seminar, a two-day meeting aimed at preparing in the best possible way the transition from Paris 2024 to the upcoming Games, in Los Angeles in 2028. One of the highlights of the gathering was the handling by IOC President Thomas Bach of a Paris 2024 Olympic Torch to each of the highest representatives of the Sports present at last year’s Olympics in the French capital. Mr Mohammed Jalood (IWF President) with Mr Thomas Bach (IOC President) MrMr Jalood then travelled to Yerevan, the historical capital of Armenia, where he had the opportunity to attend the country’s weightlifting federation’s electoral session and congratulate the new President of the national body, Mr. Arayik Harutyunyan. This highly-respected official is well known within the weightlifting family, as he has been Chief of Staff of the Prime Minister’s Office. In this quality, he had represented the highest authorities of the country, namely playing a decisive role in the award of the 2027 IWF World Championships to the city of Yerevan. A meeting with the President of the Republic of Armenia, Mr Vahagn Khachaturyan, was also organised. The President of the Republic of Armenia Mr Vahagn Khachaturyan (fourth from the left in the photo) welcomed the IWF delegation in Yerevan. Next to him (fourth from the right), Mr Arayik Harutyunyan, the newly-elected president of the country's weightlifting federation “Weightlifting has many years of tradition in Armenia. The country has always won Olympic medals ever since the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics. This shows the significant place for weightlifting in Armenia. Arayik Harutyunyan has done a lot for Armenian weightlifting in recent years, and we are sure that the 2027 IWF World Championships – also an Olympic qualification event - will be a wonderfully organised event,” declared Mr Jalood to the Armenian media.   The IWF President was accompanied in Yerevan by Mr Al Mana and by the IWF Secretary General Antonio Urso. IWF

IWF and ITA formally sign a 2025-2028 agreement

The IWF is happy to announce that it formally signed a 2025-2028 agreement with the International Testing Agency (ITA), for the prosecution of our Federation’s anti-doping programme. This four-year contract highlights the excellent co-operation between the two parties, working together since 2019. This collaboration includes, among other areas, athletes' testing, results management, scientific research, TUE procedures, education, intelligence & investigation, and compliance. The success of these operations was recently demonstrated by the figures related to the lifters taking part at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games: both before and during the event, all tests done on the 122 lifters present in the French capital were negative. In a very challenging environment, these achievements are a proof of IWF’s strong commitment to promote clean and fair competitions around the world. The regular update on anti-doping regulations and the technological advancements provided by the ITA are also a guarantee that our International Federation remains at the forefront of this merciless fight. Mohammed Jalood (IWF President) “We are extremely satisfied with this partnership, as it allowed us to pursue on 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 area. The Los Angeles 2028 Olympics are already on the horizon and we will get there very well accompanied by the ITA,” considered the IWF President Mohammed Jalood. Benjamin Cohen (ITA Director General) “We are honoured to continue our partnership with the IWF, a collaboration that has proven to be a game-changer for weightlifting athletes worldwide. By placing the utmost emphasis on clean sport, the IWF has demonstrated an unwavering commitment to protecting athletes and ensuring fair competition,” stated ITA Director General Benjamin Cohen. “This renewed trust underscores the IWF’s determination to uphold the integrity of weightlifting and reflects the success of the reforms achieved together since 2019. We congratulate the IWF on their leadership in this critical area and look forward to supporting the weightlifting community on the path to LA28 and beyond.” IWF

Applications are open for the 2025-2028 IWF Refugee Team

The regulations for the future IWF Refugee Team have now been published after the recent approval of the IWF Executive Board concerning the continuation of this successful programme. Initiated in 2023 and renovated in 2024, the new guidelines will now comprise the 2025-2028 quadrennium, thus providing more stability to the project. The IWF Refugee Team will be composed by two male and two female lifters, to be chosen by the IWF Refugee Working Group. Two additional athletes (one from each gender) can be included in the group, provided they are IOC Refugee Scholarship holders. In order to be eligible for the Team, athletes must be officially recognised as refugees in the country they reside, in accordance with the UNHCR (United Nations Refugee Agency) protocols. In the selection process, priority will be given to lifters coming from war zones and areas affected by environmental disasters. The lifters included in the IWF Refugee Team can compete in IWF events, but will not be considered for the Los Angeles 2028 Qualification System and Olympic Games. This prerogative is reserved to athletes with an IOC scholarship. The members selected to the IWF Refugee Team must fully comply with the IWF Anti-Doping Rules and complete all education activities related to this topic. Besides the four lifters, a Team Manager and a Team Physiotherapist will also integrate the programme. The application deadline to be included the IWF Refugee Team is February 16, 2025. By March 30, 2025 the IWF Refugee Working Group will decide on the athletes and support personnel that will integrate the Team. All relevant information can be found

IWF President New Year’s Message

We come to the end of a very successful year for the weightlifting family. 2024 provided many outstanding opportunities to show the vitality of our beloved Sport, the devotion of our athletes, and the prestige of our competitions around the world. The corollary of these memorable 12 months was the great celebration of weightlifting at the Paris Olympic Games, a privileged occasion to showcase the value of our Sport in the Olympic programme. After a qualification period where our lifters fought for the 120 available places for the Games, the event in the French capital was spectacular: breathtaking performances, new countries getting medals, a packed venue with thousands of enthusiast spectators cheering for their idols, a great exposure through TV and digital platforms worldwide, and a 100% fair and clean competition, with no positive cases before and during the Games. In general, the Games were a remarkable success and weightlifting was part of this achievement. We are proud of this outcome and I obviously take this opportunity to warmly thank our National Federations, and respective athletes, coaches, and officials. The IWF events were also of paramount importance for the prestige of our Sport. From the Youth World Championships, where for the first time a double platform was used, to the significant success of the Junior showcase and the amazing experience provided by the IWF World Championships some weeks ago in Manama, the vibrant capital of Bahrain, everything was put in place to ensure optimal conditions for all participants and to guarantee the maximum possible promotion of these events in the five continents. With a renovated energy and motivation, we can now envisage a great 2025! Despite being a post-Olympic year, we will not rest on our laurels. We will continue setting up great competitions for our athletes, we will proceed with our merciless fight for a clean sport (in co-operation with the International Testing Agency), we will reinforce our Development Programme for the benefit of our continental and national federations, we will remain fully determined in guaranteeing good governance, inclusivity, and sustainability in everything we do, we will strengthen our commercial opportunities and we will increase our institutional partnerships with the major stakeholders in the international sports environment. 2025 is also an electoral year for the IWF. Our National Federations, in a democratic and transparent way, will decide on a new Executive Board for the next four years. I am sure their verdict will reinforce the path of success our International Federation is pursuing in recent years. These achievements and the perspective of future successes can only be achieved in a spirit of unity and solidarity. Despite national and even personal differences, I am happy and proud to say that the weightlifting family is a very united one. We walk together with one common and consensual vision: to make weightlifting a more credible, important, and respected sport on a global scale! We are on the right track but must continue working hard. The competition is fierce, and the political, social, and economic challenges around us are enormous. But we are strong and resilient people, who know to overcome adversity. Let’s keep this same spirit in 2025 and write one more brilliant page in the rich and prestigious history of the IWF. I thank you for your continuous support and hard work and I wish you a healthy, successful, peaceful, and prosperous New Year of 2025! Mohammed JaloodIWF

Asian Youth and Junior Champs: Iran, India and Vietnam look to future as world’s strongest weightlifting continent ends year on a high

Iran, Vietnam and India were among the nations that prospered at the Asian Youth and Junior Championships in Qatar, collectively winning more than 120 medals. The Championships, which ended on December 26, featured seven age-group world records and brought to a close a memorable year for the world’s strongest weightlifting continent. When Shahzadbek Matyakubov from Turkmenistan claimed two more junior world records with his final lift at 102kg he took the tally of youth, junior and senior world records set by Asian weightlifters in 2024 to 65. Of those records, 37 were by women and 28 by men. The rest of the world mustered 21 between them for both genders. Shahzadbek Matyakubov (TKM) At the IWF World Championships in Bahrain in early December, PRK and China led the way as Asian athletes took more than 80 per cent of the medals. China unearthed an array of new talent, sending a largely junior team which came home with plenty of medals and senior world records. The average age of PRK’s 17 medal winners in Bahrain was under 23. PRK and China – with help from a strong Kazakhstan team - sent a clear message in Bahrain that the next generation of Asian talent is on the way. In the absence of PRK and China, neither of which sent a team, that message was underlined in Qatar by athletes from Iran, India, Vietnam, Turkmenistan, Chinese Taipei, Iraq, Thailand, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. The best session of the Championships was that men’s 102kg, in which gold and silver medallists both broke junior world records and finished first and second in the individual rankings. Matyakubov held off a strong challenge by Alireza Nasiri from Iran. In September, 20-year-old Matyakubov won the junior world title in Spain with a 391kg total. He bombed out in clean and jerk in Bahrain when well placed to win a medal, then returned to form two weeks later with a six-from-six 177-219-396. Alireza Nasiri (IRI) Nasiri made five of his attempts, taking Matyakubov’s junior world records in clean and jerk and total when he finished 171-218-389. Those records lasted about a minute before Matyakubov took them back again. Nasiri, 19, was sixth in Bahrain despite making only two good lifts. Iran’s other top performers included Ilya Salehipour and World Juniors silver medallist Alireza Abbaspoor, who finished second and third behind Alexey Churkin from Kazakhstan at 89kg. Churkin, who weighed only 81.88kg, made 163-197-360, while Salehipour totalled 356kg and Abbaspoor 355kg. Abolfazi Zare, 18, won at 102kg on 366kg, and Iran also won at 109kg when Arlya Paydar totalled 380kg. Haniyeh Sharifi, 17, won the youth women’s 71kg on 88-112-200. Iran won eight women’s medals in the Youths Championships. Having won 10 medals at the senior World Championships in Bahrain, where super-heavyweight Alireza Yousefi was one of the star performers, Iran earned top place in the men’s and combined team classification for juniors in Qatar. “Our investment has been fruitful,” the Iran Federation president Sajjad Anoushiravani told local media. “We sent young weightlifters to Bahrain and I am satisfied with what they did. “Our athletes shone in Qatar and so many female weightlifters won medals. The Asian Youth and Junior competition is a crucial step in their journey toward future Olympic dreams. I see a bright future ahead for weightlifting in Iran.”   Vietnam’s Department of Sport and Physical Exercise announced this month that weightlifting would benefit from special funding for development and coaching. The team’s efforts in Qatar showed why the authorities are keen to support the sport on the pathway to Los Angeles 2028. K Duong (VIE) Vietnam dominated the lighter men’s categories, winning at 55kg, 61kg and 67kg. K Duong claimed a sweep of youth world records in stretching his unbeaten run to six since he first appeared in international competition in 2022. The 17-year-old made 116-146-262, up 9kg on his previous best, to finish ahead of team-mate Do Tu Tung. Another 17-year-old, A Tieu, won youth and junior titles at 61kg on 122-149-271, while the 67kg junior title went to Tran Minh Tri on 141-171-312. With two gold medals for its women, Vietnam finished top of the overall medals table. Other leading men’s performers included Ali Ammar Yusur from Iraq, who became the first junior super-heavyweight to total 450kg-plus in Bahrain. This time Ali Ammar needed only his openers on 180-226 to secure victory, declining his other four attempts. Chen Guan-Ling from Chinese Taipei was rated top individual women’s junior performer by more than 200 Robi points. Chen has set four junior world records at 55kg since September, and it would have been more if she had not failed with her final snatch attempt at 99kg. Chen Guan-Ling (TPE) The junior world champion, who was second in Bahrain, finished 94-120-214, a better total than the 59kg and 64kg winners. Thailand had three of the top 10 women in the individual rankings – the 45kg winner Khemika Kamnoesdsri on 74-90-164, 59kg champion Thanaporn Saetia on 96-115-211, and Natcha Kaewnoi, who was 22kg behind Chen in third place at 55kg. Akzhol Kurmanbek from Kazakhstan set youth world records in clean and jerk and total at 73kg, making 142-174-316. Another youth champion in top form was Bekzod Gofirjonov from Uzbekistan, whose 194kg clean and jerk was a youth world record at 89kg. He totalled 348kg. Jyoshna Sabar from India was ranked top individual female youth after matching the world standard total at 40kg. Sabar, 16, made 60-75-135. India won 33 medals across the age groups. Of 24 lifters in the team, 22 were Khelo Indian Athletes – youngsters selected for a government-backed sport scheme. They are funded and train at accredited academies. Asian athletes will have chances to set even more world records before the new weight categories begin from June. The IWF Youth and Junior World Championships are held concurrently in Lima, Peru from April 30-May 5, and the senior Asian Championships are in Jiangshan, China from May 9-15. By Brian

Season’s Greetings!

Please be informed that the IWF office will be closed from December 23, 2024 to January 3, 2025. For urgent matters, please don’t hesitate to email your direct contact within the IWF staff. Wishing you all very happy festivities and a successful and prosperous New Year of 2025!