News

IWF Executive Board Decisions

The IWF Executive Board held a 2 days meeting on 15 March in Istanbul, Turkey. The following decision was made as a further confirmation on the IWF's strong approach in its anti-doping fight. The decision is as follows: 1. Countries that did not fulfill with the whereabouts requirements prior the 2010 World Championships but were there to participate and later did not comply with the sanction imposed on them before the 31st December 2010 are a. suspended from every international activity until they comply with the Executive Boards decision and settle the fine, and b. their results from the 2010 World Championships will be deleted. With regard to the improvement of the IWF Development and Education Program, the Executive Board decided to increase over 50% the amount of support to the National, Continental and Regional Federations for their sporting, educational, development, and anti-doping

Warming up for the 2012 IOC World Conference on Women and Sport

On the occasion of International Women's Day, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced the theme of next year's IOC World Conference on Women and Sport, which is "Together Stronger: The Future of Sport". The event will take place from 16 to 18 February 2012 in Los Angeles, USA, and is being organised jointly by the IOC, the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) and the Southern California Committee for the Olympic Games. There is no doubt that women's participation is key for a healthy society in general, but also for the future of sport. The IOC has made women's participation in sporting activities and administration one of its major concerns. The participation of women in the Games has increased from 23 per cent in 1984 Los Angeles to 43 per cent at the 2008 Beijing Games. At the inaugural Youth Olympic Games in Singapore last summer, 46 per cent of the athletes were girls. With the addition of women's boxing to the Olympic programme, the 2012 Games in London will have women competing in every sport on the Olympic programme for the first time in

International Conference on Development of world weightlifting and fight against doping

The Belarus Weightlifting Union held an International Conference "Development of world weightlifting and fight against doping" in Minsk, Belarus on 26-27 March, 2011. The hosts: Alexandr Shpilevsky President, Alexandr Kurlovich, Vice-President and Sergey Samusev, General Secretary, created excellent conditions for the work. Sergey Nered, Deputy Minister, Ministry of Sport and Tourism, Genadiy Alekseyenko, Vice-President and George Katulin, General Secretary, Belarus Olympic Committee together with Dr. Tamas Ajan, IWF President also attended the Conference. The participants expressed their wish to develop weightlifting in their countries in close cooperation with the IWF. Well-known Belarus specialists acknowledged also by WADA made presentations about doping issues and their anti-doping activity. Their lectures were in harmony with the information given by the IWF President. On 26 March, 2011 in the framework of the conference, leaders of 14 National Weightlifting Federations of Middle Asia and East Europe established the Euro-Asian Regional Weightlifting Association. Its goal is to organise joint training camps, symposia, competitions, training courses for referees, coaches, exchange scientific documents in the interest of developing weightlifting and to fight against doping. A 3-member Coordination Group was elected to guide the cooperation of the member

Deadline to send your Final Entry Forms for the YWC

From 8 to 15 May 2011 Lima will host the 2nd Youth World Championships. The tournament held at Convention Center Hotel Maria Angola will be attended by over 300 athletes from around the world. The deadline to send your Final Entry Forms is 24 April 2011. All documents can be found on the IWF

The manufacturer for the IWF Referee Uniforms is a Thai Company

The IWF has officially announced that from the 10 October 2010 the official IWF Referee Uniforms are exclusively manufactured in Thailand under the guidance and care of the Thai Amateur Weightlifting Association (TAWA - [email protected]). The IWF considers the Thai Company "Poppula by MV" as its official sole supplier. The TAWA Coordinator appointed to handle uniforms is Mr. Nippon Limboonsuebsai. Please contact him for any further request regarding your orders.E-mail: [email protected] - Phone: +668-567-86-888 The former Uniform manufacturer Vargas Company informed the IWF that all previous orders were delivered and with regard to our exclusive contract with "Poppula MV", the Vargas Company is no longer authorized to accept orders for IWF Referee

Arnold Sports Festival Overview

With 46 sports and events, including 13 Olympic sports, the 2011 Arnold Sports Festival was held in Columbus, Ohio in the US. The festival has expanded into the world's largest multi-sport weekend since its 1989 beginning. More than 100,000 sports fans came to see the competitions in a variety of more than 40 sports and events. The highlight of this year's edition was without any doubt the competition of "Islands vs. the Mainland" where USA's best lifters were pitted against the best lifters from the Pacific Islands. Mr. Paul Coffa, General Secretary of the Oceania Weightlifting Federation and Head of the Mainland Team reported "It was fantastic to have Arnold Schwarzenegger attending part of the event. In fact Arnold was so impressed with the young lifters that he sat down to referee a few of them. Having so many kids competing is what I call development of the sport." See the full report by the following