News

IWF Development Funds kick off Nordic Athletes’ Commission work

The Nordic Weightlifting Federation (NWF) has modernized its constitution this fall to follow the new IWF Constitution. Modelling the IWF Athletes’ Commission the NWF has now an active Athletes’ Commission with ten active athletes, a male and a female representative from each member federation. Amongst themselves the athletes chose Katla Björk Ketilsdóttir (ISL) as the Chair, Ine Andersson (NOR) as Vice Chair, Árni Rúnar Baldursson (ISL) as Secretary and Saara Retulainen (FIN) as Social Media Administrator. The NWF AC was welcomed with IWF AC Chair Sarah Davies who described work that the IWF Athletes’ Commission does. IOC Athlete 365 material was reviewed on how to start Athletes’ Commissions as the IOC recommends that athletes are present at all levels, not only at the international level. All new NWF AC members felt that starting an Athletes’ Commission in their own countries is the next step. The commission also brainstormed on how the sport can be made more reachable to the common spectators. The sport is popular in the Olympic years as the exposure from the Olympic movement brings a wider audience to weightlifting competitions. The athletes discussed their ideas about how the audience who doesn’t know our sport can be made into a fan. Once the ideas started to flow, the commission realized they must have their next meeting very soon! The athletes have three votes at the Nordic Congresses held twice each year. The Nordic AC will work mainly online but the first ever meeting was able to be held in person with the support of the IWF Development

IWF Meets, Moves Towards Elections

Madrid, 30 January 2022; The International Weightlifting Federation’s (IWF) Member Federations met at a Special Congress held online today and approved key measures that will enable elections to be held as planned. The elections for the IWF’s leading bodies are scheduled for 25-26 June 2022. Among the measures approved were constitutional amendments to ensure a sound legal basis for the elections, which will be a call for candidates being issued on 2 March and eligibility checks on the candidates completed by 30 April. “A year ago, the IOC set us three key tests: reform our governance, ensure clean weightlifting competitions at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, and deliver culture change through the holding of elections. With two of those already completed, the IWF is now well on its way to delivering the third,” said IWF Interim President Dr Michael Irani. In addition to adopting constitutional amendments, the IWF also established a fully-ratified Ethics and Disciplinary Commission (EDC) representing all the five continents, whose initial work will include the vetting of candidates for the June elections. The members of the Commission are: Gabriel Nigon, Switzerland (Chair) Nasr El-Din Azzam, Egypt Ahmad Bin Nooh Al-Thani, Qatar Lorena Novoa, Colombia Charles Quagliata, Australia The appointed reserved members are the following: Ana Maria Montoya Ruales, Peru Valéry Horyna, Switzerland An Independent Investigative Chamber (IIC) was also established with the following members: Dev Kumar Parmar, United Kingdom Elda Gjoka, Albania Adnan Rhoma, Libya Romain Bizzini, France Lorenza Mel, Italy “The IWF is pleased to welcome independent legal expertise to ensure the elections are conducted to the very highest standards,” continued Dr. Irani. “With our conduct in the coming weeks and months, we can ensure that whatever the results for individual candidates, weightlifting will be the

2022 IWF Junior World Championships – Heraklion, Greece

This year the IWF Junior World Championships will be held between 02-10 May 2022, in Heraklion, Crete.   The program of the Event is the following: 30 April - IWF Committee Meetings, Verification of Final Entries (Online) 01 May - IWF Executive Board Meeting, ITO Meeting 02-10 May - Competition Registration details The deadline for submitting the Preliminary Entries for the 2022 IWF Junior World Championships is 02 February 2022. As usual, it is mandatory for Federations to register their athletes before the preliminary entry deadline for the IWF Junior World Championships. For this purpose, Federations are able to register up to 20 athletes/gender even though the final number of competitors can only be a maximum of 10 athletes (+2 Reserves) per gender, which shall be selected by the Final Entry deadline (02 April 2022). Entries shall be registered only via the IWF Online Entry System: https://www.iwf.net/e-entry_2022gre/sec_Login/ Anti-Doping eligibility requirements for the Event: In accordance with article 5.5.16 of the IWF Anti-Doping Rules 2021 whereabouts information of the athletes shall be submitted at a minimum of three (3) months prior to the IWF Junior World Championships. Athletes who wish to compete at the IWF Junior World Championships shall submit their whereabouts information for the period outlined above at the latest on 02 FEBRUARY 2022. ADAMS Deadline for Q1 2022 in regards to the IWF Junior World Championships: 02 February 2022 ADAMS Deadline for Q2 2022 in regards to the IWF Junior World Championships: 31 March 2022 An Athlete who does not comply with this provision is not eligible to compete at the IWF Event. The competition documents including Regulations, Accommodation & Transportation Form, and Visa Application Form can be found here. Information on Media accreditation process will be provided

More Categories for Weightlifting at Mediterranean Games

The 2022 Mediterranean Games, officially known as the 19th Mediterranean Games and commonly known as Oran 2022, is a forthcoming international multi-sport event that is scheduled to be held from 25 June to 5 July 2022 in Oran, Algeria.The Weightlifting competition will take place from 01 July to 04 July 2022.„I would like to thank the International Committee of Mediterranean Games, the host country, and the Organizing Committee. Initially, the weightlifting program consisted of only two men's and two women's body weight categories, with two competition days. After 5 months of our continuous requests and a petition from the Mediterranean region's national weightlifting federations, it was finally decided to organize competition in 5 man and 5 woman body weight categories across 4 competition days“, said Dr. Milan Mihajlovic, Technical Delegate for the Weightlifting Competition at Oran 2022 Games and EWF General Secretary.The Weightlifting competition of the XIX Mediterranean Games Oran 2022 will include the following events:Men: 61 Kg,73 kg, 89 Kg, 102 Kg, +102 KgWomen: 49 Kg,59 kg, 71 Kg, 81 Kg, +81 KgVery important information is that the Weightlifting competition will take place if a minimum of eight (8) countries for the men's events and six (6) countries for the women's events have registered before 11:59 p.m. (Algerian time) on Friday March 18, 2022.As there are 22 national weightlifting federations in the Mediterranean area, we encourage all NFs to send as many athletes as possible because we put in a lot of effort and the host went above and beyond to make the games the best they could be.Following the expansion of the first schedule, it is up to us to demonstrate the strength of the Mediterranean weightlifting federations and not let any session be canceled. Source: European Weightlifting

IWF Constitution Translated Into Additional Languages As Governance Reform Continues

The IWF Constitution, independently-drafted and then approved by Member Federations in August 2021, has been translated to Arabic, French, Russian and Spanish as part of the IWF’s ongoing governance reform efforts. The implementation of the provisions of the new Constitution is well underway and the IWF will hold a Special Congress on 30 January, where the members of the independent Ethics and Disciplinary Commission, responsible for determining eligibility of candidates ahead of the IWF Electoral Congress on 25-26 June 2022, will be elected. “This marks another important step in the IWF’s governance reform ahead of our Special Congress at the end of this month, “ said IWF Interim President Dr Michael Irani. “The translation of the Constitution into four additional languages ensures that the vast majority of federations have the opportunity to access the document in their native language. Our focus is now firmly on the Congress at the end of this month and ensuring we remain on the right path, in line with the requirements set out by the IOC.” The new Constitution is seeking to establish vital principles including athlete representation, gender equality and independent oversight.  A minimum of three athlete representatives will serve on the reformed IWF Executive Board, and women will fill at least 30% of elected positions. Ethics and discipline matters will be handled independently of the IWF Executive Board, building on interim arrangements that had already been put in place in recent months. In addition to this, the robust eligibility criteria and term limits outlined in the Constitution will ensure that the future IWF Executive Board benefits from a regular influx of new talents and will notably deprive National Federations with a high number of doping cases will not have access to board-level

IWF Special Congress – Agenda and related materials

Please be informed that the agenda of the Special Congress can be downloaded from here. All materials related to point 3 of the agenda “Approval of the proposed changes to the IWF Constitution and Rules” can be downloaded from here. Please note that the IWF Executive Board is preparing a list of appointments of the Members for the Ethics and Disciplinary Commission (EDC) and the Independent Investigative Chamber (IIC). The final list of appointments will be sent to all Member Federations in advance of the IWF Special