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IWF120y/32 – 2024: Lima tests with success the two-platform format

With the steady improvement of the number of lifters taking part in the IWF events – thus testifying on the universal development of the sport in the five continents -, the number of sessions and days at the major competitions has been under consideration. The choice between having more (less charged) or fewer (with continuous sessions from morning to evening) days has in many cases reached its limits, so a new solution was tested at the 2024 IWF World Youth Championships, held in Lima (PER) from May 22-26: the simultaneous use of two platforms in the same venue. This scenario is not new for many national members (who are using it at their domestic events), but at the IWF level, this was a premiere. With one platform featuring male lifters and the other one welcoming female action, this format allowed a faster running of the event, attended by 277 athletes (137 men, 140 women). During the five-day competition, spectators on the site and those following the event remotely could enjoy a more “compacted” action, with fewer stops between the lifts running on both platforms. Athletes, officials, and organisers praised this innovative solution and the system will be used again in the Peruvian capital this year, for the joint organisation (also a premiere) of the IWF World Junior and Youth Championships, taking place from April 30 to May

IWF120y/31 – 1970: Vasily Alekseyev emerges to glory

Born in January 1942, it was not before being 18 that Vasily Alekseyev started to practice weightlifting. It was a wise decision, as he became the uncontestable star of the 1970s, in the super heavyweight category. The Soviet talent trained with a coach until 1968, but then decided to proceed alone and the results appeared very soon. In 1970, he establishes his first World Record (he would set 80 global marks during his career!) and wins the World Championship title in Columbus (Ohio, USA). It is the start of a golden decade that will include two Olympic titles, in Munich 1972 and Montreal 1976. As the Games were also counted as World Championships, he will therefore establish an extraordinary series of eight consecutive victories at the highest level – 1970 to 1977. In parallel, he is also eight times European champion from 1970 to 1978. He is still today, the most titled lifter in the history of the IWF World Championships. At the 1980 Olympics in Moscow, he overrated his capacity in Snatch and bombed out. He retired from competition immediately after those failed Games. Performance-wise, Alekseyev had no problems during the transition from the three to the two-movement competition (implemented in 1973), having established some landmarks throughout his career – he was the first man to lift more than 600kg in the three movements (press, snatch and clean & jerk), with a personal best and WR of 645kg (in 1972), and more than 400kg in the two-movement competition (445kg being his last WR); the Soviet champion was also the first athlete to successfully perform a C&J of 500 pounds (227kg), in 1970. After his retirement, he remained active as a coach (namely during the 1992 Games in Barcelona), and got involved in politics (he was elected in 1987 to the Soviet Union’s Congress of People’s Deputies). He passed away in 2011, after serious heart problems. One of his two sons, Dmitry, was also a national-level successful

IWF120y/30 – 2016: Do it first, no matter your body weight!

Despite the tiny minimal differences (initially 0.5kg, nowadays 1kg) when considering a weightlifting result (thus allowing for a potential range of different outcomes), it happens on many occasions that a tie is registered, meaning that two different athletes have lifted the exact same number of kilos. Traditionally, this problem was solved in the past with a very straightforward method: if tied, the lightest lifter (the one whose body weight was inferior) would win. This method was based on simple logic: for the same weight on the bar, the heaviest athlete has some advantage, so the lightest one should be favoured. In 2016, the IWF decided to change this rule and adopt a new procedure: from 2017 onwards, in case of a tie, the athlete who has first lifted or achieved a cumulative result wins (in reality, this rule already existed since the mid-1980s, but only as a second element to untie a result, if lifters with the same result had also the exact same body weight). The idea is to enforce the sacred principle in our Sport: who lifts more, triumphs! Additional arguments in favour of this idea include an improvement of ‘active’ strategies during the competition (and not the simple comparison of the body weights), the enforcement of the principle that athletes must win on the platform (and not in the sauna), and a better understanding of the rules by neophytes in weightlifting (spectators, TV viewers, or media representatives). In practical terms, this rule obliges the lifter to look for the next kilo in order to overcome his/her most direct opponent. It has one more non-negligible advantage: if a World Record is set, and then matched, the first lifter establishing it will necessarily and logically win the

IWF120y/29 – 1977: China starts its pathway to excellence

Until the mid-1970s, the sport of weightlifting was dominated by lifters coming from the Soviet Union – they are still ranked second in the Olympic and World Championships medallists’ charts – but another powerhouse started to emerge at the highest level: China. We are in Stuttgart (Germany) in 1977, at the World Championships, and Chen Manlin (men’s 56kg category) will stay in the history books as the first Chinese lifter with a medal at the IWF showcase – in this case, two, the silver in the Clean & Jerk and the bronze in Total. A discreet debut of what would become an incredible supremacy until the present day. Two years later, at the 1979 Worlds in Thessaloniki (GRE), Wu Shude (photo) is the first-ever world gold winner (Snatch), the men’s 52kg. Wu is arguably the initial star of Chinese weightlifting, as he would also clinch the title at the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, this time in the 56kg. Before that success, his teammate Zeng Guoqiang officially becomes the first Chinese Olympic champion in the Sport, lifting 105-130-235 in the men’s 52kg. The Asian delegation leaves California with a total of four titles out of the 10 on offer. In 1987, the IWF showcase is also contested by women and the inaugural edition in Daytona Beach (USA) is dominated by China (eight out of the nine gold at stake). For the record, the first-ever Chinese female world champion was Cai Jun (44kg category) with 70-75-145. These achievements lead to the organisation in 1995 of the first IWF World Championships in Guangzhou, where the host nation leads the medals chart, with seven overall titles. From 1977 to 2024, China won 1048 medals at the IWF World Championships (including 347 in Total only). At the Olympics, the Asian powerhouse also leads operations with 67 podium presences (43 gold, 16 silver, and eight bronze) – medals at the Games only comprise Total

IWF120y/28 – 2021: Ecuador celebrates its brightest Star – Neisi Dajomes

After a participation in the 1924 Olympics, Ecuador only returns to the Olympic arena from 1968 onwards. Following the Paris 2024 Games, the country has secured 10 medals in the biggest sports event on the planet. Four of them come from weightlifting – and all of them from women! Neisi Dajomes is the brightest star among those Ecuadorian idols: at the Tokyo 2020ne, she becomes the first female Olympic gold medallist for her nation, after winning the 76kg category, in 118-145-263. Born on May 12, 1998 she enters the sport through her older brother Javier (who passed away in 2018) and competed in 2011 in her first IWF event, the Youth World Championships. Two years later, she wins her first title precisely in that competition and gets the silver at the 2015 Pan-American Games. Her first Olympic participation, in Rio 2016, concludes with a seventh place. After several medals at the world and continental level, she is the Olympic champion in Tokyo (JPN). “After that win, Ecuador discovered weightlifting and started following the Sport. Moreover, it also deeply changed the way people were looking at women’s weightlifting,” Dajomes admits. Qualified for her third Olympics, she earns bronze (122-145-267) in the 81kg category last year in the French capital (photo). She becomes the only Ecuadorian female athlete with more than one Olympic medal. Weightlifting is a matter of family for Neisi – following the example of their late brother, three other siblings are also competing at the highest level in the Sport: Angie (also third in Paris 2024, in the 71kg category), Jessica, and German. Besides the three medals in the Dajomes family, Tamara Salazar (silver in Tokyo 2020ne) completes the group of illustrious female weightlifters in Ecuador.

IWF120y/27 – 1969: First medals for individual movements

Despite the change in the number of movements, there was a stable rule at the IWF events and Olympic Games: medals were only given based on the Total result of the lifters (the cumulative weight of the movements performed). In Mexico City, in 1968, a proposal to award separate medals for the Press (before its abolition in 1973), Snatch, and Clean & Jerk results (considered individually) was approved by the Congress. Delegates decided that the new rules would be enforced at the subsequent edition of the World Championships, taking place in Warsaw (POL), in 1969. The Congress (which approved the creation of two additional bodyweight categories) also urged the IWF leadership to take these matters to the IOC, for possible inclusion in the Games programme. In the end, only the change of categories was validated by the Olympic instance – otherwise, and concerning the awards, this norm is still valid today, whereby lifters at the Games are only given medals based on their Total result. At the IWF level, the 1969 showcase (only contested by men at the time) distributed therefore 108 medals (the Soviet Union led operations, followed by the United States and Poland), instead of 27 (if only Total had been considered), and this rule was never abandoned. At the latest IWF showcase (photo), the 2024 World Championships in Manama (BRN), men and women competed in 10 categories each, for a total of 180 medals, evenly allocated for the Snatch, C&J, and Total