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130th Anniversary of the First World Weightlifting Championships

Exactly 130 years ago, the first world weightlifting championships was held in London in 1891. At that time, the organization of the event needed a shorter time as today as only 7 athletes competed from 6 countries. The first world champion was Edward Lawrence Levy from England. Only one gold medal was allocated as no weight categories existed that time. Levy, 39, also won the very first British Amateur Weightlifting Championships two month before the London competition. During his career he set 14 world records. At the first modern Olympics, in Athens in 1896 however, he was no longer present as an athlete but as a member of the jury for weightlifting. At the first World Championships only men competed, while the first world championships where women could compete was held in 1987.  The first joint world weightlifting championships where both women and men competed was organized only in 1991. This event was called 64th Men’s and 5th Women’s World Championships and was held in Donaueschingen, Germany. To compare the first weightlifting championships with the last one which was held in Pattaya, Thailand in 2019, at the first one only 7 men competed with no specific bodyweight categories while in 2019 588 athletes - 313 male athletes from 84 countries and 275 female athletes from 79 countries - competed in 10-10 bodyweight

Female Focus II Webinar – IWF Women’s Commission

The IWF Women's Commission is organizing its second Female Focus webinar on 26 March 2021 at 9PM CET after the first successful Female Focus webinar. The webinar will be held on Zoom and can also be followed at the IWF YouTube Channel during and after the webinar. Experts and topics: Jenny Ortiz Cárdenaz, MSc - Barriers and Facilitators on Female Participations Tina Ball - Coach Tina Dr Kyle Pierce - Men Coaching Women Charlotte Fischer, MSc- Nutrition and Menstruation Moderator: Karoliina Lundahl - IWF Executive Board Member, IWF Women's Commission Chair, IWF CRC Deputy Chair Panel: Karoliina Lundahl (FIN) - IWF Women's Commission Chair Heather Allison (GBR) - IWF Women's Commission Member Neroli King (NZL) - IWF Women's Commission Member Sarah Davies (GBR) - IWF Athletes' Commmission Chair Pyrros Dimas (GRE) - IWF Executive Member Please find the link for registration: https://zoom.us/webinar/register/4316121823668/WN_l1YTouYZQGyN9pxSELKBYg Hopefully we will see many of you during the

IOC and IPC Respect and Accept Japanese Decision on Overseas Spectators

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) were today informed by the Japanese parties in the five-parties meeting about their conclusion regarding overseas spectators at the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020 this summer. For the reason of the safety of every Games participant and the Japanese people, their conclusion is fully respected and accepted by the IOC and the IPC. During the meeting, the IOC and the IPC were informed that, as outlined in the full statement by Tokyo 2020, the conclusion of the Japanese parties is not to allow entry into Japan for overseas spectators for the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020 due to the prevailing worldwide COVID-19 pandemic. Olympic and Paralympic Games tickets purchased by overseas residents from the Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee will be refunded. “We share the disappointment of all enthusiastic Olympic fans from around the world, and of course the families and friends of the athletes, who were planning to come to the Games,” said IOC President Thomas Bach. “For this I am truly sorry. We know that this is a great sacrifice for everybody. We have said from the very beginning of this pandemic that it will require sacrifices. “But we have also said that the first principle is safety. Every decision has to respect the principle of safety first. I know that our Japanese partners and friends did not reach this conclusion lightly. Together with them, the IOC’s top priority was, is and remains to organise safe Olympic and Paralympic Games for everyone: all the participants and, of course, our gracious hosts, the Japanese people. We stand shoulder-to-shoulder at the side of our Japanese partners and friends, without any kind of reservation, to make the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020 a great success. “Together with our Rights-Holding Broadcasters, we will make every effort so that the fans from around the world will be able to experience the Olympic spirit. In this way, the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020 will be the light at the end of the tunnel and a safe manifestation of peace, solidarity and the resilience of humankind in overcoming the pandemic.”

President of Turkmenistan Awarded the Honored Athlete of the Country

On March 10, 2021, an awarding ceremony of the merited athletes of the country with the participation of the President of Turkmenistan, President of the National Olympic Committee of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov was held in the Sports Complex of the Martial Arts of the Olympic town. The ceremony was attended by the members of the Government, as well as coaches and leading athletes of the country. In the course of the ceremony the President of Turkmenistan, President of the National Olympic Committee of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov presented a solemn speech. Then, President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov awarded the gold medal to Yulduz Djumabayeva, who became the winner of the World Weightlifting Championship held in November 2018 in Ashkhabad. As is known, International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) on its official website had renewed the protocols of the World Weightlifting Championship of 2018, having recognized Yulduz Djumabayeva the winner of that tournament in the weight category up to 45 kilograms. So, following the revision of the results, the Turkmen athlete, who has updated world records among juniors in double-event (179 kgs), was awarded a gold medal in the “clean and jerk” discipline (104 kgs), and silver medal in the “snatch” discipline (75 kgs). After that, Interim President of International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) doctor Michael Irani and Secretary General of International Weightlifting Federation (IWF), Vice-President of the Asian Weightlifting Federation Mohammed Jalood made their presentations via videoconferencing. High-ranking representatives of the IWF noted that the awarding of the merited athlete Yulduz Djumabayeva in Turkmen capital testifies to the fact that traditional sports are reborn in the country, which provide Turkmen sport with a worthy place in the world. This is recognition of dedication to work of Turkmen athletes who gained significant results. Source: Ministry of Foreign Affairs of

Thomas Bach Re-Elected as IOC President for Second Term

Olympic champion Thomas Bach has been re-elected for an additional four-year term as President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC). At the 137th IOC Session held virtually today, the 67-year-old German received 93 yes and 1 no votes from the 94 valid votes. Thomas Bach, who won gold in with the German foil fencing team at the Olympic Games Montreal 1976, was elected as IOC President at the IOC Session in 2013 in Buenos Aires for a first eight-year term. This term will finish on the closing day of the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 on 8 August this year, as decided by the IOC Executive Board. His second term as IOC President will start immediately after, and will conclude in 2025. “Thank you very much from the bottom of my heart for this overwhelming vote of confidence and trust. For me, this is even more overwhelming considering the many reforms and the many difficult decisions we had to take, which affected all of us,” said President Bach after the election. “You know that this touches me deeply. It also makes me humble. When you elected me for the first time as your President in 2013 in Buenos Aires, I said that I wanted to lead the IOC according to my campaign motto ‘Unity in diversity’ and be a President for all of you and for all our stakeholders. This commitment is also true for my second and last term. My door, my ears and my heart remain open for each and every one of you. I hope that I can count on your continued dedication, support and friendship also during these four more years.” As an athlete, Thomas Bach was a world-class fencer, winning the Olympic gold medal, but also two gold medals with the German foil fencing team at the World Championships in Montreal in 1976 and in Buenos Aires in 1977. He was a founding member of the IOC Athletes’ Commission in 1981, on which he remained until 1988. In 1991, he became an IOC Member and sat on the IOC Executive Board between 1996 and 2013. He served as IOC Vice-President from 2000 to 2004, 2006 to 2010 and from 2010 until his election as IOC President in September 2013. His full biography can be found here. During his first period in office as IOC President, he initiated the Olympic Agenda 2020 reforms for the future of the IOC and the Olympic Movement that were adopted at the IOC Session in Monaco in 2014. Just before his election today, the IOC Session approved the Closing Report of Olympic Agenda 2020 unanimously. Olympic Agenda 2020 has profoundly changed the Olympic Games, the IOC and Olympic Movement. The IOC Executive Board has already proposed the successor to Olympic Agenda 2020 – Olympic Agenda 2020+5 – which will be discussed by the IOC Session on Friday this week. It consists of 15 recommendations inspired by five key trends, designed to pave the way to build on these solid foundations and carry Olympic Agenda forward into the future. In his acceptance speech addressing the IOC Members, President Bach said: “In the meantime, you know me well enough that I would also like to look forward and continue to achieve ambitious goals with you also in the post-coronavirus world. We learned during this coronavirus crisis, the hard way, that we can live up to our Olympic slogan ‘faster, higher, stronger’, in sport and in life, only if we are working together in solidarity. Therefore, I would today like to inspire a discussion – a discussion with you and everybody interested in the Olympic community – on whether we should not complement this slogan by adding, after a hyphen, the word ‘together’: ‘Faster, higher, stronger – together’. This could be – from my point of view – a strong commitment to our core value of solidarity, and an appropriate and a humble adaptation to the challenges of this new world.” During his presidency, Thomas Bach received the prestigious Seoul Peace Prize, in October last year – a prize which he said belonged to the entire IOC and the whole of the Olympic Movement. Without the support of so many around the globe, the achievements for peace through sport could never have been accomplished, he stressed. In 2019, he was awarded the Cem - Papandreou Peace Award in Athens. This award is given to individuals and groups who have made “an outstanding contribution to peace”. The full acceptance speech can be read here.

Update – Extension of the Tokyo 2020 Qualification Period

The International Olympic Committee approved the request of the International Weightlifting Federation on the extension of the Tokyo 2020 Qualification Period. According to this decision, the East Asian Championships, South-American, Ibero-American & OPEN Senior Championships, and the 2021 IWF Junior World Championships maintain their status as an Olympic Qualification events. Please note that the IWF Competition Calendar was modified accordingly. The amended Qualification System will be published