News

Media Registration System is Now Open

Today IWF has launched a new platform which will serve the purpuse of media registration for selected IWF Events.  Media registration is now open for the following IWF Events: 2022 IWF Junior World Championships 2022 IWF Youth World Championships The platform can be found here. In case of question, please contact IWF at

IWF’s strong stance against doping in weightlifting

The International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) wholeheartedly welcomes the recent decision from the Anti-Doping Division of the Court of Arbitration (CAS ADD) regarding Kazakh weightlifter, Nijat Rahimov. He was found to have committed several Anti-Doping Rule Violations (ADRVs) in 2016 and has now been sanctioned for a period of ineligibility of eight years and all competitive results since 15 March 2016 have been disqualified. Furthermore, the IWF would like to stress its unequivocal commitment to tackling doping and the use of prohibited substances and methods in weightlifting.While there have been mistakes made in the past, which the IWF acknowledges, the organisation has taken strong and decisive steps to ensure that the situation in weightlifting has dramatically improved. Since 2019, the IWF has delegated its entire anti-doping program to the International Testing Agency (ITA) making it entirely independent of the IWF. In its scope, the ITA performs more than 2300 doping tests per year in weightlifting for the IWF.This week the International Testing Agency (ITA) confirmed to the IWF that regarding the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 there have been no positive tests in weightlifting so far.“Sadly, in the past, we had a culture of doping. The IWF Executive Board recognises this problem and over the last three years we have invested millions of dollars into our anti-doping testing and clean sport development to ensure that weightlifting is clean. We do not accept any form of doping in our sport, and we are doing everything we can to chase dopers out.  They are not welcome in the sport.” remarked IWF Interim President Dr. Michael Irani.IWF General Secretary Mohammed Jaloud added: “We have worked tirelessly to introduce and maintain full compliance with the World Anti-Doping Code for weightlifting, culminating in the fact that at the Olympic Games in Tokyo we had zero doping cases. We are very proud of this; it is our new standard, and we will continue to fight to keep our sport clean so athletes can be sure that when they compete against others it’s a level playing field.”In July 2019, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) performed a complete audit on the IWF’s anti-doping program. WADA has confirmed that IWF is fully compliant with the World Anti-Doping Code and its standards. Furthermore, the ITA also confirmed that since the delegation of the IWF anti-doping program to the ITA, considerable effort has been made to maintain IWF’s compliance with the World Anti-Doping Code by implementing strong anti-doping processes and policies and reforming IWF’s anti-doping bodies (eg the Independent Member Federation Sanctioning Panel, IWF Anti-Doping Commission and Independent Monitoring Group).“We have come a long way from the terrible doping problems we faced in our sport but we cannot be complacent, we must continue the improvement in our anti-doping program and remain vigilant to ensure that athletes can be happy to compete in our competitions drug free” concluded Jaloud.For any question or to get more information about the IWF’s commitment to clean sport please

IWF is Mourning the Passing of Dr Bolivar Vargas

It is with great sadness that we have learned the passing of Dr Bolivar Vargas, Secretary General of the Dominican Weightlifting Federation. With his passing the weightlifting community has lost a great figure and leader. IWF is sending it condolences to his family, loved ones, to the Dominican Weightlifting Federation and the Pan American Weightlifting

ITA – IWF Webinar Series // First Webinar – 31 March 2022

We are pleased to invite the weightlifting community to the first webinar series organized by ITA on behalf of IWF in 2022. In the course of 5 weeks, 5 webinars are provided covering the key Anti-Doping areas. The first webinar information are the following: Topic: Introduction to Anti-Doping (Including Overview of the system, rights and responsibilities, ADRVs ) Date and time: 31 March 2022, 14:00-15:00 CET Registration link: https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_bRY4xoRgTRexI1nR3dTHxQ The webinar will be in English and simultaneous translation will be provided in Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian and Spanish. The athletes and athlete support personnel who take part in all 5 webinars will receive program completion

XL Torneo Int. “Manuel Suárez in Memoriam” – Tournament in Cuba

The XL Manuel Suarez International Tournament took place between 15-19 March 2022 in Havana, Cuba.   At the event, which was also a qualifier for the Central American and Caribbean Games 2023, International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) was represented by Interim President, Dr. Michael Irani and General Secretary, Mohammed Jalood while the Pan American Weightlifting Confederation by PAWF President, José Quinones and PAWF General Secretary, William Pena.     In total 19 countries were represented by more than 130 athletes who competed in the capital of Cuba where we were fortunate enough to witness Pan American records being broken. The most successful nation was Colombia, winning the majority of gold medals.   Besides the competition, the Cuban Weightlifting Federation (CWF) together with the Manuel Fajardo University of Physical Culture and Sports Science organized a Scientific Seminar which was built around the subject of weightlifting.   Scientific Seminar In addition, the IWF and PAWF representatives visited the Manuel Fajardo University and the Cuban Sports Research Centre, where they met and had a productive discussion later on with the Rector and Heads of the Departments.   'The Cuban Federation felt honored with the presence of the IWF and PAWF leadership, and that some Olympic and World medalists also attended the competition. Cuba is grateful for the International Weightlifting Federation and hopes to organize future IWF events." said Jorge Barcelán, President of the Cuban Weightlifting

Hosting opportunity: 2022 IWF World Championships

After careful consideration due to the current COVID-19 situation in China, Chinese Weightlifting Association (CWA) have had to re-evaluate China’s ability to host the upcoming 2022 IWF World Championships.Given the much stricter COVID-19 prevention and control rules being implemented, which would mandate that all teams and officials would have to carry out a 21-day quarantine, CWA considered that it is no longer viable for the 2022 IWF World Championships to be delivered to the standard of the IWF requirements.Therefore, after careful evaluation, it is with regret that the CWA has had to withdraw from hosting this year.“After thoughtful consideration, it is with great regret that we are not able to meet all the IWF requirements to organize the 2022 IWF World Championships this year. We are committed to our sport and would like to assure the IWF family that as soon as the situation permits, we are more than happy to host a future World Championships and IWF events as we have done in the past.” CWA wrote in the letter sent to IWF.“The Chinese Weightlifting Association has been a great partner, together we have been working hard for over two years to deliver the World Championships in China this year. However, unfortunately the pandemic is still with us and we must do what is best for our sport and our athletes. We thank the Chinese Weightlifting Association for all their efforts and look forward to returning to China another time.” said IWF Interim President Dr. Michael Irani.China was the leading nation in weightlifting at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, winning seven gold medals and one silver.The IWF Executive Board is working to find a replacement host. More information will be available shortly. Any Member Federation interested in hosting the IWF Senior World Championships this year will have 15 days to provide a letter of intent to the IWF. All letters can be sent