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IWF120y/26 – 1983: Women’s weightlifting under IWF’s umbrella

The road to the integration of women’s weightlifting in the IWF has been a long one. The sport was practiced by female lifters in some countries and for some time – there is a piece of funny news in a German newspaper in 1898 reporting that a club in St-Petersburg (Russia) was privately organising female weightlifting sessions for “athletic” ladies – but the prominent conservative mentality still considered the sport as fit for “strong men” only. We are also in Russia, but in October 1983, when an IWF Technical Committee meeting takes place in Moscow and includes one “unusual” topic in the agenda: weightlifting for women. Following a long and heated debate – continental representatives were also attending the meeting – it was unanimously decided that the IWF would incorporate women’s weightlifting into its scope of activities. The minutes of the meeting underlined however that despite this outcome “details are to be elaborated later and no world championship is allowed.”  Things moved fast and in March 1986 an international competition takes place in Budapest (HUN), with the presence of 23 women from five nations and three continents (Canada, China, Great Britain, Hungary, and the United States). The success was immediate and that decisive turning point opened the way for the organisation, one year later, of the first Women’s World Championships in Daytona Beach (USA, photo), and ultimately the integration of women’s events in the programme of the Olympic Games, starting from the Sydney 2000 edition onwards. Nowadays, weightlifting is a perfectly gender-balanced sport concerning the participation of men and women at the IWF

IWF120y/25 – 1957: Eleiko, from the kitchen to the fitness centre

It could be a slogan, inviting the most gourmet people to visit their fitness centre from time to time. It is not - it’s the essence of Eleiko’s history, nowadays one of the most renowned barbell companies on the planet. Originally founded in 1928, in the Swedish city of Halmstad (the headquarters of the company are still based there), Eleiko’s initial business was the production of electric appliances for the kitchen, namely waffle irons and toasters. In 1957, one of the factory’s supervisors, an enthusiast lifter, approached the owner of the company with an idea: to produce weightlifting bars. Until then, it was frequent to see training and competition bars breaking due to the material’s fatigue and weakness. Eleiko was already using high-quality Swedish steel for the manufacture of its products, so after some technical developments, the first bars were officially introduced at the 1963 World Championships, staged in Stockholm. The success was immediate and the athletes quickly adhered to this resistant and reliable equipment. In 1967, also by accident, an Eleiko employee had met a weightlifter who was using rubber tires around his plates to reduce the damage caused by the impact of the weights on the floor. The concept was created and the Halmstad Rubber Factory was then implemented. In 1969, Eleiko was certified by the IWF and has since then been present in many top-level competitions and Olympic Games. In 2011, Eleiko celebrated the 1000th World Record achieved with one of its

IWF120y/24 – 1984: Dean Lukin, the only Olympic gold for Australia

In a country where Swimming is a national pride (the sport brought more than one-third of the medals won at the Olympics), Australia could however shine at the highest level in weightlifting on one occasion: in 1984. In Los Angeles – where the Olympic Games were boycotted by the Soviet Union and its traditional allies – Dinko (Dean) Lukin managed to bring home what is the sole Australian Olympic gold so far in our sport. Born in 1960 in Sydney, his family moved to Port Lincoln (South Australia) when he was only five. At 16, his talent for weightlifting was noticed by who would be his future coach, Leon Holme. Practically at the same time, he becomes a full-time fisherman, spending many months of the year at sea fishing tuna. His training conditions were far from ideal – in an old tin shed -, but he kept on improving his performances. Competing in the +110kg, he achieves his major international result in 1982, winning the gold (Total of 377.5kg) at the Commonwealth Games in Brisbane. Two years later, at the Olympics, Lukin snatches 172.5kg and then successfully lifts 240kg in the Clean & Jerk for a winning performance of 412.5kg. At the 1986 Edinburgh Commonwealth Games, he revalidates his title (392.5kg), in what would be his last international success. In 1985, he was inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame. Australia has three more Olympic weightlifting medallists: Vern Barberis (bronze in 1952), Robert Kabbas (silver in 1984), and Stefan Botev (bronze in 1996). Among women, there isn’t any podium presence for the time being: in Paris 2024, Eileen Cikamatana was close to a medal but ended up finishing

IWF120y/23 – 2019: IWF and ITA together in the fight against doping

Starting in 2019 – the agreement had been signed in November 2018, at the IWF World Championships in Ashgabat (TKM) – the IWF partnered with the International Testing Agency (ITA) for the development of a transparent and independent strategy in the fight against doping. Since then, this collaboration has been pivotal for the development of weightlifting and the improvement of the IWF’s status within the Olympic Movement. In 2025 – the contract with the ITA has been recently renovated until the end of 2028 – the International Testing Agency is responsible for all activities related to IWF’s anti-doping programme. These activities include: Risk assessment; Test distribution planning and management; In and out-of-competition testing; Therapeutic Use Exemption (TUE) management; Athlete Biological Passport programme; Result management; Long-term storage and re-analysis of samples; Support to the IWF’s educational programmes. This last point is of paramount importance, and regular Clean Sport seminars are organised within the frame of the IWF major events, namely the Junior and Youth World Championships. These initiatives aim at providing senior and younger athletes, as well as their support personnel, all the relevant information on this topic (under the general motto “I Lift Clean”). Commenting on this fruitful relationship, IWF President Mohammed Jalood recently said: “We are extremely satisfied with this partnership, as it allowed us to pursue in a transparent and independent way our anti-doping strategy. Weightlifting definitively changed from the moment we partnered with the ITA – and this was essential for our credibility and growth as an Olympic sport. We are now a respected International Federation that operated a structural change in the way it looks at this essential

IWF120y/22 – 1972: The end of the Press movement

Historically considered one of the basic weightlifting exercises, the Press movement - whereby the bar is lifted onto the chest/shoulder level and then elevated overhead – had been left as one of the three movements in the Olympic programme since the 1928 edition in Amsterdam. However, constant changes in the technique (with lifters performing most of the times in the “limits” of what was allowed and what was not…) and the associated difficulties in judging, led to a proposal to abolish this technique at the 1964 Congress in Tokyo. The change was rejected and four years later, in Mexico City, the delegates had the opportunity to deliberate once more, and the vote remained the same: Press should continue. In Munich, in 1972, with a set of more solid arguments – namely medical advice on the risk of injury due to an exaggerated arching of the lower back – the proposal was finally adopted (33 delegates in favour, 13 against), much to the relief of the weightlifting referees around the world. From 1973 onwards, the “officially allowed cheating” (as Press was unfortunately known around the world), was banned from the programme at the IWF events and, of course, at the Olympics. From that moment on, Snatch and Clean & Jerk are the two movements to be performed by lifters at the international level. For the record, the last recognised World Record in Press was the successful lift of 157.5kg from Bulgaria’s Mladen Kuchev (photo) in the 67.5kg category, precisely at the 1972 Games in

IWF120y/21 – 1948: Rodney Wilkes, the pride of Trinidad and Tobago

Since it started its Olympic participation at the 1948 Games in London, Trinidad and Tobago has amassed until 2024 a total of 19 medals. Fifteen of them come from Athletics, undoubtedly a sport with great tradition and superb athletes in the Caribbean island. But the second best in the medal chart is Weightlifting, with early podium presences precisely in 1948, and 1952. In the 60kg category, Rodney Wilkes (photo) earned the first-ever Olympic medal for his nation, by placing second in the British capital. Born in 1925, Wilkes (nicknamed the “Mighty Midget” or “Midget Atom”) was first noticed when he won gold at the 1946 Central American and Caribbean Games. Arrived in London, Wilkes made a combined result (Press, Snatch, and Clean & Jerk) of 97.5-97.5-122.5-317.5, getting silver behind Egypt’s Mahmoud Fayad. Four years later, in Helsinki (FIN), the Caribbean ace made a better total (100-100-122.5-322.5), but had to content with the bronze. In the Finnish capital, his teammate Lennox Kilgour (1927-2004) would also shine (in the 90kg), with a third place (Total of 402.5kg). In 1951, at the first Pan-American Games, Wilkes was champion, a feat that he also achieved at the 1954 Commonwealth Games. In a time when international travel was not the norm (and was extremely expensive), Wilkes could never compete at the IWF World Championships, mostly organised in Europe during the 1950s. After achieving a fourth place in Melbourne 1956 (Total of 330kg), and failing the qualification for Rome 1960, Wilkes retires from the sport and works as an electrician in Trinidad and Tobago. Some days after completing his 89th anniversary, he passed away in March 2014. Since his (and Kilgour’s) early feats, no more lifters from the Caribbean nation have medalled at the Olympic