PRESS COMMUNICATION of the International Weightlifting Federation
The 21-member Executive Board of the IWF, complete with Dr. Patrick Schamasch, Medical Director of the IOC, Tom Dielen, European Director of WADA, as well as experts from eight further European, Asian and Panamerican countries, held its extraordinary meeting in Budapest, on 2nd and 3rd February 2005. The primary objective of the meeting was to further tighten the anti-doping measures of the IWF – which are singularly severe anyway among the sports; to elaborate new strategies in the interest of a clean weightlifting sport. The IWF Executive Board reinforced its stance against the misuse of doping and engaged in an aggressive campaign in order to eradicate doping from the sport. It issued the unrelenting and strong message to all competitors and national federations: “You don’t comply – you don’t compete!” The WADA Director immediately asked the IWF for the right to use this new slogan in its own operations and programs. Both the International Olympic Committee and WADA confirmed their full support to the Federation. Patrick Schamasch, IOC Director passed on a personal message of Dr. Jacques Rogge, IOC President, when expressing appreciation for the IWF’s long anti-doping fight, and Tom Dielen did the same on behalf of the WADA Board. Proving again that it does not only pass declarations against doping but it does act too, the IWF Executive Board approved further, even more rigorous measures, complementing its Anti-Doping Policy in force since August,2004:• To set up and train its own team of doping control officers with the assistance of WADA;• To sanction the coaches surrounding the athletes failing the dope test, even if the national federation concerned does not name those guilty. In this case the President of the national federation will be declared “persona non grata” in an international context;• To ban hiring coaches in foreign countries who have coached several athletes testing positive;• To publish the list of national federations and athletes on the IWF’s internet homepage who fail to comply with the obligation to submit whereabouts information for the out-of-competition controls, and of course these are not allowed to compete;• To increase the percentage of out-of-competition testing as opposed to in-competition testing;• To publish on the website a separate list of positive competitors back to 2001, and, in the future to publish the positive test results immediately after the result of the A sample; The Executive Board then decided to enforce 1-year suspension against national federations that produced three or more positive test results last year. These are: India, Iran and Hungary. In the latter’s case a temporary suspension applies, depending on the decision of CAS concerning two pending appeals. In its meeting, the Board dealt with the IWF Centenary and Electoral Congress to be held in Istanbul, Turkey, in a month’s time. Each Member made a statement in support of the nomination of Dr. Tamás Aján for the next term to President of the Federation. They were dismayed to note the decision of the Executive Board of the Hungarian Weightlifting Federation last November, not supporting Dr. Aján’s candidature to IWF President. The IWF Board was unanimous in finding that statement unacceptable, and believed that it did not serve the interests of Hungarian weightlifting, Hungarian sports diplomacy or international sports. They were also unanimous in deciding: the IWF Executive Board will put forward Dr. Tamás Aján as candidate to the President’s position at the Congress. (By the way, Dr. Aján is unopposed). The Executive Board decided that soon after the Congress on 4th March approves the new rule called the “1 kilo rule” (a revolutionary move to replace the current 2.5kg progression between attempts and world records in 0.5kg increments), the Junior World Championships in Busan, Korea in May 2005 will be carried out in this new system. The Executive Board accepted the affiliation of a new member: Scotland. That is the 172nd affiliated member of the IWF. On Wednesday, 2 February, the leadership of this 100-year old International Federation was received at the Hungarian Parliament by Péter Kiss, Minister of the Chancellery, who confirmed the Hungarian Government’s continued support to both Dr. Tamás Aján as President of the IWF and the Federation’s Secretariat headquartered in Budapest for 29 years. Yannis Sgouros (GRE) General Secretary IWF Sam Coffa (AUS)1st Vice President
