News

Bula iLiftClean – Anti-Doping Outreach at the Junior World Championships in Fiji

Successful IWF Anti-Doping Outreach and iLiftClean Booth were established for athletes and officials again during the 2019 IWF Junior Championships in Suva, Fiji. The iLifClean Booth was set up near the field of play, where participants had the chance to receive useful information in the field of Anti-Doping. An other booth was set up by Voices of the Athlete (VOA) at the Event, which drove the attention to the following topics: * Go Green - Sustainable Coastlines - The participants discuss issues like saving the environment, cleaning up beaches, pollution, ways of advocating “Going Green” in their own countries. * Be a leader - Athlete's Commission - The participants discuss the qualities of a good Leader and are empowered to realise that they can be agents of positive change in their communities. * Staying Healthy – Voices of the Athlete (VOA) The staying healthy component focus on the topic Non-Communicable Diseases. The program covers the effects of Non-Communicable Diseases as well as healthy lifestyle choices students can make in order to stay healthy. The IWF Anti-Doping Outreach was organised in the framework of the WADA Legacy Outreach Program, athletes and officials had the chance to try their knowledge in the field of Anti-Doping. This time 71 athletes from 17 countries filled the IWF’s Anti- Doping quiz which is based on the WADA quiz. The Anti-Doping Quiz is available in more than 10 languages. (ENG, FRA, ESP, GER, RUS, CRO, SWE, FIN, JAP, HUN, GRE, CHN, Arabic). As they say in Fiji, vinaka (thank you) to all the visitors of the iLiftClean booth and Outreach!

IWF Women’s Commission focuses on increasing gender equality

Chaired by Ursula Papandrea, IWF Vice President, the IWF Women's Commission met in Suva to identify and discuss immediate and long-term tasks. In addition to members from Austria and New Zealand, several IWF officials were interested in the discussions, including Dr. Tamás Aján, President, José Quinones, Vice President and Chair DEC, Karoliina Lundahl, EB Member and Vice Chair CRC and Attila Ádámfi, Director General. It was established that while women are doing very well in terms of athlete participation ratios especially in Olympics and World Championships, much remains to be done in the field of educating female coaches and especially in having women in leadership positions at national, Continental and finally IWF levels. Also strongly propagated by the IOC-IFs Gender Equality Forum and Agenda 2020, strategies for creating opportunities and ensure the pathway towards leadership roles were suggested. Such a step would be the proposed Constitution modification, for instance, to have min. 3 members on the Executive Board represented by both genders, as well as a minimum of 20% gender representation across all Committees and Commissions. This idea also to be followed up by Continental Federations. Various ideas were discussed to enhance coaching education generally and concentrated on women, etc. The Commission would also welcome useful conclusions of research specific on training women in weightlifting for further elaboration, and agreed to increase its social media presence and provide

ÖGV President Gerhard Peya receives high state recognition of Austria

IWF congratulates Gerhard PEYA, President of the Austrian Weightlifting Federation, on being decorated with the Prestigious Award of the Republic of Austria. The ceremony was initiated by Ensemble Wild with the Camellia polka by Johann Strauss. International referee since 1980 and having fulfilled an executive position on the Austrian Weightlifting Federation (ÖGV) for 27 years - its President 1998-2001 and since 2013 to date - PEYA received the honour in appreciation of his leadership role in the sport of weightlifting and contributions to its

Claudio Leveque passed away

The weightlifting family is mourning: Argentine Claudio Leveque, who was not only a great athlete but a big personality in weightlifting passed away recently. He was born in France but naturalized to Argentina and started to lift weights in the ’60s. An outstanding performance of his was becoming South American champion in 1973. After his retirement, he remained active with his beloved sport as the leader of Federacion Argentina de Pesas (Argentine Weightlifting Federation) and as an international referee. He was on duty as a referee for the last time in Tashkent, at the 2018 IWF Youth World Championships. The IWF sends its condolences to the Argentine Weightlifting Federation and to his

Tokyo 2020 Test Event documents updated

Documents for the Friendship Tournament (Tokyo 2020 Test Event), taking place in the Olympic weightlifting venue in Tokyo, Japan 6-7 July has been updated. The period to submit the Final Entries is over. Following the IWF TCRR Silver Event regulation, no more entries can be submitted at this point. Download the documents: NEW! Entry Statistics NEW! Entry List NEW! Preliminary

Roundup of the 2019 IWF Junior World Championships

The 2019 IWF Junior World Championships took place in the capital of the beautiful country of Fiji, 1-8 June and now it has been successfully concluded. The national television of Fiji was present with 6 cameras for domestic live television broadcasting while streaming with professional commentary was available all around the world. The tiny island on the Pacific defied all skepticism, and despite not having prior experience in organizing a weightlifting World Championships, Fiji and the Local Organising Committee under the leadership of Dr. Robin Mitchell, President of ANOC and ONOC, IOC Member; delivered this Gold Level Olympic qualification event in the most professional manner. “In addition to support from the Government, we cannot thank enough to Weightlifting Fiji and its President, Mr. Atma Maharaj for his devoted service by living up to the challenge of a world event and thus confirming Fiji as a strong weightlifting nation even in a global context.” - Dr Tamas Ajan All the participants, including the athletes, officials, and dignitaries found the event spectacular and highly enjoyable. Chinese Weightlifting Association President Mr. Zhou Jinqiang attributed much of his team’s success to the forethought of the Organizing Committee. “They’ve provided us and all of the teams with very good accommodation and transportation,” he said. “That’s why we have good results.” Emphasizing the importance of this championship in the life of Fiji, the President of Fiji, Major-General (Ret’d) Jioji Konusi Konrote attended the event and demonstrated the warmest hospitality to the weightlifting family. “Fiji is proud to host this important event and the Fijians are doing their best to make everybody feel at home. Never before have so many countries been represented at a sports event in Fiji,” The event was included in the “Voices of the Athletes” Schools Program, which meant students from 12 Fiji schools had the chance to witness an event of this size. Weightlifting Fiji, under the leadership of Atma Maharaj, expects to spark further interest in weightlifting. “We want to be able to set up new high-performance centers in our country,”  Mr. Maharaj said. “We want to be able to propel the sport even further.”   IWF has chosen NYE Katherine Elizabeth (USA) and OPELOGE Don (SAM) for the Best Lifters of the JWC. NYE won the women's 71kg bodyweight category with a whopping 36kg advantage over the second finisher, while OPELOGE excelled in men's 89kg category, winning the first gold medal for Samoa on a Junior World Championships. In total, 235 athletes participated, 105 women and 130 men from 41 countries. At the women, China won the medal tally (11,1,0), followed by KAZ (6,0,0) and VIE (3,3,0). At the men, Uzbekistan had the most medals (6,0,0) then EGY (3,0,0) and IRI (2,4,9). The favorable results of the IWF’s serious Anti-Doping program and Education, providing a level playing field for all, were clearly visible at this Championships: countries with no World Championships gold medal record now stepped forward like Samoa and New Zealand! Women's Team Classification: 1. USA (615), 2. KOR (431), 3.TUR (409) Men's Team Classification: 1. IRI (622), 2. USA (552), 3. JPN (521) Read more about the results in the RESULTS