News

IWF Expands Scope Of Governance Reform, Adjusts Dates For Constitutional Congress

The IWF Executive Board decided to expand the scope of governance reform and adjusted the date of its forthcoming Constitutional Congress, to accommodate this more ambitious scope for positive change. In place of the constitutional amendments originally envisaged, the independent members of the Reform and Governance Commission have now proposed an entirely new document that replaces the current IWF Constitution. This approach has been welcomed by the IWF Executive Board. The IWF Constitutional Congress has therefore been pushed back to the revised dates of 29 and 30 April 2021.  "Based on a comprehensive look at the IWF's governance by the independent members of our Reform and Governance Commission, it became clear that amendments would not be enough to bring us up to the highest standards and meet the targets suggested to us by the IOC. Instead, complete revision is called for and that is what we will now deliver," said IWF Interim President Dr Michael Irani. "It will also be important to ensure our athletes and Member Federations have adequate time to review the comprehensive proposals and comment on them before they vote. Fortunately, the new timeline allows us to still achieve two critical objectives: providing Member Federations with a clear view of the future of IWF's governance while also meeting the IOC's call for comprehensive reform well in advance for post-Tokyo 2020." The IWF Electoral Congress is still planned for 26 and 27 March

IWF Welcomes ITA Prosecution of Weightlifting Anti-Doping Rule Violations

19 January 2021, Lausanne; The International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) welcomed the news from the ITA (International Testing Agency) that it is prosecuting anti-doping rule violations (ADRVs) against three weightlifters. The prosecutions follow investigations into doping within weightlifting by German broadcaster ARD, by Professor Richard McLaren on behalf of the ITA, and by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). “Placing our trust in the independent professionals of the ITA has been vital in restoring the credibility of weightlifting’s anti-doping efforts and the latest news is a further reminder that we are on the right track,” said IWF Interim President Dr Michael Irani. “The announcement of these prosecutions is a welcome development. There should be no place in our sport for doping.” In its release yesterday [https://ita.sport/], the ITA confirmed cases against Rattikan GULNOI (THA), Dumitru CAPTARI (ROU) and Nijat RAHIMOV (KAZ). The ADRV against Gulnoi is for prohibited substance abuse throughout her career. The ADRVs against Captari and Rahimov are for urine substitution in 2016. All the athletes are provisionally suspended pending resolution of their respective affairs. “The IWF is grateful to the ITA for this follow-up of the outstanding investigations and intelligence, resulting in the ADRVs announced today and with the understanding that further cases may be forthcoming,” continued Irani. “Empowering the ITA to continue working towards the protection of clean weightlifters and the promotion of clean weightlifting, with a renewed contract through to 2024, was an easy decision for us to make last October. Alongside the creation of an independent Disciplinary and Ethics Commission and comprehensive governance reform being prepared under independent legal leadership, the independent delivery of the IWF’s anti-doping programme amply demonstrates how we are writing a welcome new chapter in our sport’s

Elections – Weightlifting Federation of Georgia

The GEOWF has conducted an electoral congress recently where a detailed report of the past 5 years activities was delivered by Kakhi Kahiashvili and his team. The success story was welcomed by the congress delegates and media representative. Kakhi Kakhiashvili was voted to the presidency position and delegates acknowledged an important role of female leader and exceptional qualities by voting Rusudan Muradashvili to the position of General Secretary. Athletes’ interests will be presented by Irakli Turmanidze - as an Executive Board Member. Challenges and opportunities were discussed by the elected board members. GEOWF holds the bold ambitions to leverage its medal count and host the most important international events. Source:

Elections – Malta Weightlifting Association

At the General Meeting of the Malta Weightlifting Association held on Thursday 14th January 2021, the Executive Council was elected to serve a four-year term. Matthew Camilleri was elected as General Secretary, Matthew Abela as Treasurer. Jesmond Caruana kept his position as President together with executive members Rodmar Pulis and Ramona Borg.  The Council thanked the predecessors members for their sterling work. Further the association enhances the role of the sport of weightlifting to continue in the right direction of increasing more young athletes and reaching higher goals in top competitions. Source: Malta Weightlifting

2021 IWF Development Program

IWF is glad to inform the Member Federations that the 2021 IWF Development Program is open. Considering the feedback of last year, the type of projects remain the same and the Federations can apply for assistance in equipment, seminar, event support and covid-19 related expenses. The deadline to submit the applications is 24th February 2021. Details regarding the procedure can be found in the application guidelines which is available here with other related documents. For any queries please

WADA Launches New and Improved Anti-Doping Education and Learning Platform (ADEL)

Montreal, 6 January 2021 - Today, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) launched its Anti-Doping Education and Learning platform (ADEL), which is a new and improved version of the current Anti-Doping e-Learning platform (ADeL) that was launched in January 2018. Via the new ADEL platform, WADA will provide education and learning opportunities for the anti-doping community worldwide; including: athletes, coaches, parents, medical professionals and more. Additionally, on ADEL, anti-doping practitioners will be able to find learning opportunities to help them carry out their roles; and, resources to support development of their anti-doping programs. WADA Director General, Olivier Niggli, said: “WADA recognizes the power of education to its mission for doping-free sport. The launch of the new and improved ADEL is an important milestone. It demonstrates the Agency’s commitment to education and our intention to support the development of balanced anti-doping programs that include education as a core function by Anti-Doping Organizations. ADEL directly supports the objectives of the new International Standard for Education (ISE), which took effect on 1 January 2021 and is a very significant advancement in anti-doping education policy. We are very proud of these accomplishments. They are the result of a collaborative effort that we have led with stakeholders over the past few years.” The ADEL platform will have a modernized look and feel; and, will feature a wider range of educational courses and resources for more target audiences as identified in the World Anti-Doping Code (Code) and the ISE. ADEL will also provide new opportunities for the anti-doping community to access technical help on a range of topics. WADA Education Director, Amanda Hudson, said: “Online education is one way to reach target audiences, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. The new ADEL will support the needs of the anti-doping community by providing education solutions for those responsible for the development of education programs, as well as learning opportunities and technical resources for Anti-Doping Organizations to benefit from. WADA aims for ADEL to become the ‘go to’ place for Anti-Doping Organizations to access resources to support the development of their anti-doping programs and the solutions they need to enable them to educate their communities.” ADEL now includes new education programs for international- and national-level athletes; athletes who are part of a Registered Testing Pool; high performance coaches; and, parents of elite athletes, which complement the Tokyo 2020 Olympics course for athletes and coaches; ADEL for Medical Professionals (MPs); and ADEL for MPs at Major Games. The platform also includes previously published resources; such as, the Athlete and Athlete Support Personnel Guides to the Significant Changes in the 2021 Code; the Athlete and Athlete Support Personnel Guide to the 2021 List, as well as, all Code Implementation Support Program (CISP) resources, including the recently published Guidelines for Education, Therapeutic Use Exemptions and Results Management. WADA aims to publish all courses and resources in English and French, with Spanish to follow; and more courses and resources will be developed in 2021. The new ADEL features The platform and the education content will be fully responsive to allow users to learn via a desktop, laptop, tablet or mobile phone. Learning can happen on the go with the option to complete the courses offline via the ‘ADEL by WADA’ mobile app. Personalized learning plans per role and/or stage of development. Gamification concept, including digital badges and points to collect as users learn. Centralized ADEL Academy for all education offerings. Community learning by exchanging questions and answers with people working in anti-doping. Simple reporting dashboard and customized reports function for Anti-Doping Organization administrators. A dedicated ADEL Helpdesk page with articles to help users solve common issues as well as a dedicated place for Anti-Doping Organizations to request translations of resources. To access the new ADEL: Existing users must activate their accounts upon receipt of an e-mail from: [email protected]; and New users can simply register on the new platform at https://adel.wada-ama.org/ To join the new ADEL webinar to learn more about the new platform: Date: 21 January at 09:00 (EST). How to participate: Once you have registered on ADEL, you can register for the webinar via the platform. For more information, please visit the: ADEL page of WADA’s website; and/or ADEL helpdesk   Source: World Anti-Doping