Mohammed Jalood: “The future is definitively very bright!”
After his first three years at the helm of the International Weightlifting Federation, Mohammed Jalood was re-elected President for the period 2025-2029, at the Electoral Congress taking place in Riyadh, the vibrant Saudi capital. In an impressive demonstration of unity, Mr Jalood, who ran unopposed, received 168 votes from the delegates participating in the Assembly, both in-person and online. After the successful presidential choice, the Congress elected the remaining members of the Executive Board for the upcoming four-year period, a mix of continuity and renovation for a body that will drive our International Federation during the Olympic cycle comprising the Los Angeles 2028 Games and the future decisions concerning the place of weightlifting in the Olympic programme. One day after his achievement, we spoke with the IWF President about the present and, most importantly, about the priorities for the years to come. IWF President Mohammed Jalood Mr President, congratulations on your re-election! What are your feelings after this successful Congress here in Riyadh? I am of course very happy and honoured to have received this level of trust and confidence from the National Federations. This is also their victory, the victory of the IWF uniting around common goals – to develop our beloved sport and to reinforce the value and exposure of weightlifting in the Olympic Movement. After three years of profound and structural changes, we arrived in 2025 in a stronger position, both internally and within the international sports environment. Therefore, the vote of the Congress here in Riyadh was also recognition of the immense work that has been done by the IWF family and is the latest step on our journey of realising the full potential of weightlifting and the IWF. You said on many occasions that we cannot rest on our laurels. Was this also the message of this Congress? Absolutely! This is an endless mission. We can only achieve it if we remain united and committed to our common cause: to serve the sport of weightlifting, its athletes, coaches and officials across all five continents. We have a responsibility to provide a fair, clean and inclusive environment for them to compete at their very best. Our recent past was unfortunately marked by many challenges related to good governance and anti-doping. We have addressed these essential matters, thanks to the unrelenting and coordinated efforts of our previous Executive Board and National Federations around the world. We knew what needed to be changed and we changed it. We now have robust safeguards in place and have rebuilt trust in fair and clean competitions. There have been some changes to the Executive Board, but there is a sense of continuity with what was achieved in the last three years. Do you agree? Yes, that is correct. It is not an exaggeration to say that the 2022-2025 Executive Board saved our sport by securing its place in the Olympic programme. It must be remembered that before the previous election, weightlifting was in real danger of being excluded from the Games. Through the reforms I already mentioned, namely by improving the IWF Constitution, by creating new By-laws and by strengthening the partnership with the International Testing Agency, which saw the creation of arguably the most robust, independent and transparent anti-doping programme, we demonstrated to the IOC that our International Federation is abiding by the highest and strictest standards. In October 2023, it was finally confirmed that weightlifting will be part of the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic programme. The last Executive Board played an essential role in this important development. It is normal that on the back of such important work, many members have been re-elected. At the same time, we have new members, who will bring new experience, expertise and perspectives which will only strengthen us further. Strong female representation is also a reality on our Board: this will undoubtedly enhance our work and reflects our commitment to promoting and championing women’s leadership in weightlifting. I think we have a good and motivated team for the next four-year period, and I have no doubt that we will continue doing a great job together. We all know that our personal interests do not count much in comparison with the essential tasks we have ahead. This is what motivates us. On short and medium-term goals, how do you prioritise them? Now that we ‘cleaned up our house’, we need to look farther into enhanced ways to promote the performances of our athletes, the success of our competitions and the attractiveness of our events. This can be done on several levels, namely in terms of exposure in our communication channels, enhancement of our sport presentation, innovation in our competition format, or implementation of e-sport strategies. These are ways of presenting our sport in a better and more attractive way for the many millions of fans we have worldwide. If this is done well, it will lead our sport into a more prominent place in the ever-changing and competitive sport international environment. We have so much untapped potential that we are excited to realise. Innovating our sport and making it more attractive to fans will naturally also provide new opportunities for revenue generation. Weightlifting is a universal sport. It is a cornerstone of all sport and it is something people do in gyms around the world every day. This is something we need to tap into to better engage new audiences while of course enhancing how we engage with our existing fans. In doing so we will not just be more relevant for fans but can also add greater value to commercial brands interested in being associated with weightlifting. We definitively need to reinforce our brand in the market and diversify our revenue sources – it is essential for the optimal development of the IWF and the allocation of additional resources in areas that need to be reinforced. So, innovation, promotion, marketing, revenue generation, these are some of the pillars we need to boost in the years to come. 2025-2029 IWF Executive Board The IWF has solid partners in the organisation of its World Championships – Norway in 2025 and China in 2026, just to name two. How important is this for the International Federation? The IWF World Championships is our flagship event and a fabulous opportunity to show the world the beauty of our sport. Many countries and National Federations are knocking at the IWF’s door to host this yearly competition. We are lucky to have this kind of support and enthusiasm: it proves that many nations recognise the value and potential of our sport, sometimes at the highest level. In some countries, I meet not only with the Presidents of the respective National Federations or National Olympic Committees, but also with the President of the Republic in person! Weightlifting is becoming an increasingly popular sport and this great event has proven very successful. Concerning the two examples you mentioned, Norway is definitively getting ready to host a great World Championships this October in Forde. It is the smallest-ever city to stage this event but its ambitions are big! The town has already hosted the 2016 edition of the European Championships, so there is a good ‘weightlifting spirit’ in Forde. We were promised a competition with many innovations, namely with a huge popular participation and a daily celebration of our athletes’ performances in the town’s main square. In 2026, we go to Ningbo in China. I dare to say that China is a ‘weightlifting nation’, not only because of their lifters’ supremacy at international level, but also because of the interest our sport generates in the country – TV broadcasting data confirms that the biggest worldwide audience in our sport comes from China. This is very important for us, and we are very happy to stage our main event in 2026 in Ningbo. It’s the second time China will host our flagship competition, after a successful edition in 1995 in Guangzhou. I am certain that national and local authorities will do all they can to offer the IWF the best possible World Championships. Concerning the Olympic programme, what are the perspectives after the LA28 Olympic Games? Our priority was to secure weightlifting’s position on the LA28 programme and we are delighted to have done so. We have no doubt that the weightlifting competitions in LA will be an unforgettable spectacle, building on the incredible success of Paris 2024. In Paris we saw sold out tribunes and amazing atmospheres that contributed to our athletes delivering exceptional performances. The USA has strong weightlifting pedigree and we know that there will be huge demand for our competitions. We are excited to be in the Peacock Theater, which has huge experience in hosting events and delivering compelling productions that engage audiences. We look forward to working with the organisers to put on an incredible show of weightlifting in 2028. Looking beyond LA28, our ambition is of course to try and increase our event and athlete quota. In consequence, we need to work harder for Brisbane 2032 in order to improve the situation. Firstly, we need to obtain more events than the five proposed for both men and women. At the IWF level, we will have from June eight bodyweight categories for each of the genders – this ensures reasonable gaps between each of the categories, thus fitting the athletes’ morphology and guaranteeing a fair and safe competition. At the Olympics, we have 5+5, which is challenging for many lifters who are ‘between’ two categories. A 6+6 solution at Olympic level could be a good compromise and for sure a more suitable option for our lifters – before eventually reaching an ideal total of 7+7. At the same time, we are also determined in enhancing the total number of athletes present at the Games. We know the 10’500 overall athlete quota for more than 30 sports is there and is determining each sport’s numbers, but we must convince the IOC that weightlifting, as a founding sport of the Olympic Games since 1896, deserves more athletes in the Olympics. The road is long, but we have good arguments in our favour, and we continue working hard to show the importance of having more athletes, thus reflecting the amazing development of our sport on a global scale. As you mentioned, the IWF’s partnership with the ITA is considered critical is this ‘new era’. Can you elaborate on this strategy? To put it in a simple way, more than one third of our annual budget is devoted to the fight against doping. Since 2019, we engaged in a fruitful and long-term partnership with the International Testing Agency, whereby they have complete responsibility for the running of our anti-doping strategy. This comprises in and out-of competition testing, result management, education, intelligence, and legal support. As an internationally renowned leader in this area, the ITA ensures that we are running a totally independent strategy, with no involvement from the IWF leadership. This is critical for the reputation of our Federation in this area. This is to be continued in the years to come – we have an established agreement until at least 2028 – as we are very satisfied with this level of engagement and professionalism from the ITA. Weightlifting can be considered a basic training activity even for athletes from other sports. It is also a worldwide amateur practice for millions of fitness centre users. How can you further capitalise on these two aspects? You are right, our sport cannot only be seen from an elite point of view. It goes much wider than that. Every athlete in any sport is training with weights as part of their preparation. Our sport has a fundamental role in building-up the right body morphology for any given sport. It is truly a basic physical activity and one of our long-term goals is to enlarge the vision around the IWF and comprise the strength industry as a whole. As you say, we are present in every fitness centre around the world and this can be a privileged ‘door’ to gain new fans, more audience and expand the social value of our sport. We need to do this assessment and develop a proper strategy to enhance this unique characteristic of our sport. The performances of our stars at the highest level are only the ‘tip of the iceberg’ – underneath, there is a whole world practicing strength activities. We need to reach that much wider number of people and consolidate our place within a larger audience. We are celebrating this year our 120th anniversary. The IWF has a rich history – how bright will the future be? I have no doubts the best is yet to come! We must be proud of our history, with so many fantastic moments and great athletes. They remain our inspiration and motivation to do always better. We have a great young generation of lifters and we have more people doing our sport around the world. I am a confident and optimistic person, so I am sure the future will definitively be very bright! By Pedro AdregaIWF
