News

Change in leadership of Algerian Weightlifting Federation

Abdellaou Larbi (42) has been elected as the new President of Federation Algerienne d'Halterophilie replacing Hasni Fekir. The new General Secretary is Cherrak Hadj Ahmed. The Technical Director is Chekri Youcef. The new President collected 51 votes while the other candidate, Yataguène Mohamed Rezki obtained 21 votes. President Abdellaoui Larbi succeeds Hasni Fekir who was elected Vice-President of the Weightlifting Federation of Africa of in Tunis. Abdellaoui Larbi  : I used to be a lifter but only on national level. I participated in various championships of Algeria. Later I worked as a trainer, then as a technical director in sports, and as director of the sports complex of Bourouba. My program is based on the development of weightlifting through the whole country, that is to create new centers. It is necessary to attack in particular the schools because the training is very inferior, especially some of our children have an untrue image of our sport. They think that the practice of weightlifting limits their growth. It is very important to quickly deprive them of this silly idea.(

USA Weightlifting Announces New Board of Directors

USA Weightlifting announced its new Board of Directors, bringing to conclusion the governance reform process which began in April 2008. With the announcement, the new Board will immediately take control of the organization which has been overseen by a Nominating and Governance Committee appointed by the United States Olympic Committee in April 2008 to see the organization through the governance reform process. "There were many qualified candidates for the new USA Weightlifting Board of Directors. We are confident that the individuals listed below are, collectively, the right group to lead this organization at this critical juncture." said Tim Willis, Chair of the USA Weightlifting Nominating and Governance Committee. Individuals comprising the new 11-member Board of Directors (10 voting and one non-voting) and their positions are as follows: Megan Tornstrom DeFourny(Columbus, Ohio) - At-Large Representative Mike Wittmer(Florissant, Mo.) - At-Large RepresentativeRegis Becker(Pittsburgh, Pa.) - Grassroots Representative Mark Cameron(Middletown, R.I.) - Grassroots Representative Michael Cayton(Kerrville, Texas) - Independent Representative Jack Lano(Anaheim, Calif.) - Independent RepresentativeUrsula Papandrea(Pflugerville, Texas) - Technical Representative Leo Temoshenko(Raleigh, N.C.) - Technical Representative Rachel Hearn(Savannah, Ga./Colorado Springs, Colo.) - Athlete Representative Emmy Vargas(Panorama City, Calif./Colorado Springs, Colo.) - Athlete Representative Dragomir Cioroslan(Colorado Springs, Colo.) - Non-voting Representative, International Weightlifting Federation Vice President Now that the Board members have been announced, their first order of business will be to meet as a group and select a Chair. (source:

Change of city for 2009 Junior World Championships

The 2009 Junior World Championships will be held in Bucharest, the capital of Romania - not in Constanta, as originally planned - indicated by Nicu Vlad, President of the Romanian Weightlifting Federation and of the Organising Committee. The Championships will take place 14-21 June. The competitions will take place in the Sala Polivalenta, the accommodation is at the Rin Grand Hotel. Invitation, Technical Regulations and Entry Forms will soon follow.

COMING SOON! IWF IS TO PUBLISH A BOOK ON BEIJING 2008 OLYMPICS

By the end of March an album of 700 photos is to be published to bring back memories of the most successful weightlifting Olympics ever. The book titled Magical Games and Magical lifters contains all the 255 lifters' photos who participated in the Games. It also features giant pictures of all the Olympic Champions and marks of all the medal winners. The photo album introduces all the VIP guests of the competitions and with its 700 exciting photos it tells the story of those marvellous fights lifters had in Beijing. The Editor-in-Chief is Dezső Dobor, IWF Media Officer. The Photographer is József Szaka. Further information:

German Weightlifters Up for the Arnold

Even if their Olympic teammate - gold medalist Matthias Steiner - is coming off hernia surgery, Juergen Spiess and Almir Velagic are more than ready to defy gravity at the Arnold Sports Festival, where they are headliners for the IronMind Invitational on the main stage of the Expo Hall at 1:00 p.m. on Saturday, March 7.  Leading up to that, the delegation from the weightlifting federation will also have a training session and they will be featured in a presentation followed by questions and answers. "There is a lot of interest in this visit," said Randall Strossen, who organized the IronMind Invitational.  "Even before Matthias Steiner arrived, we have received requests to interview him, so this is another example of the Arnold Sports Festival providing a terrific platform for weightlifting to be presented to the larger public." The German delegation comprises seven members, three of whom are Olympic medalists in weightlifting: Dr. Christian Baumgartner (leader)              Frank Mantek (coach)                     Michael Vater (coach)                    Marc Huster (media)                               Matthias Steiner (athlete)                         Almir Velagic (athlete)                             Jürgen Spieß   (athlete)         The Arnold Sports Festival is from March 6 - 8 in Columbus, Ohio.  It is the world's largest multi-sport fitness expo, founded and run by California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and his partner Jim

Road 2 Asian Games, NEW SERIES

IEC staff led by Jeff Stone had a fantastic experience in Chiang Mai shooting and interviewing Thailand 's top female weightlifters at the end of February. The program they shot for is called Road 2 Asian Games, which is a new program that launched in early-February. The show is airing in various markets around Asia in the run-up to the 2010 Asian Games to be held in Guangzhou. (The core competence of IEC in Sports' (IEC) business is the distribution of television rights of events in Summer Olympic sporting disciplines. The 2008 IEC programme list consists of more than 350 events with a total annual volume of more than 4,000 "live"