IWF boss: Weightlifting has restored its reputation

GENEVA — Mohammed Jallod, president of the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF), said it would be unthinkable if weightlifting was excluded from the Olympics as the sport has never missed a single Games since 1896.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) reinstated weightlifting for the 2028 Los Angeles Games program at the 141st IOC Session in Mumbai, India, on Oct 17.

"Being in the Games from the very beginning, it was unthinkable for us to be excluded from the Olympic celebration. In that sense, it was perhaps one of the most upsetting perspectives in our history," Jallod told Xinhua in an interview conducted via email.

"But the shock wave provoked by this possibility has resulted in a profound change in our international federation. Indeed, it has been quite a challenging road, but since the election of the IWF Executive Board in June 2022, a renovated team was 100 percent determined in changing the culture and the functioning of our international federation," he added.

Weightlifting was not on the initial list of sports for the Los Angeles Games proposed to an IOC session in February 2022, and the sport could still miss LA28 if it cannot meet the criteria of the IOC before the 2023 session.

The IOC has established a "pathway" for weightlifting, as well as boxing and modern pentathlon, to be reincluded for LA28 after the IWF demonstrated progress it had made in fighting bad governance, doping, and financial issues.

Jallod said the IWF has made many changes in governance. These include "constitutional revision imposing term limits to the IWF officials, ensuring gender equity in our structure, providing an increased athlete representation and voice, reinforcing integrity and safeguarding mechanisms, promoting inclusion with the creation of an IWF Refugee Team, a specific policy on gender identity and also on human rights and nondiscrimination, or creating the first-ever IWF Strategic Plan, for the period 2024-2032."

The IWF also delegated anti-doping responsibilities to the International Testing Agency (ITA) and increased the budget to improve testing, anti-doping education courses, and the investigative powers of the ITA.

As a result of the new anti-doping strategy, all tests were negative at the IWF World Championships in September in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

"Weightlifting restored its reputation and is now considered an important player in the Olympic Movement, capable of providing added value to the Games' program," Jallod said. "This represents an incredible satisfaction to the millions of lifters worldwide, and it also constitutes a huge responsibility for the IWF. The IOC has positively valued what has been done by the weightlifting family, but there aren't any results taken for granted in sport."

"This is the challenge and the obligation we have for the years to come. But I am optimistic and confident that all weightlifting stakeholders will do their utmost to keep up the positive work," he added.

Weightlifting will still feature at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games but only has 10 categories and 120 athletes in the competition, which is a significant reduction from the Tokyo 2020 and Rio 2016 Games.

"Unfortunately, this dramatic cut had to do with the reputational problems the IWF was facing in the past," Jallod said. "We believe we entered a new cycle of success, and we will of course fight for the improvement of the current 120-athlete quota in the Olympic Games. This is of course a huge effort, given the introduction of new sports in the Games' program and the need to keep the overall athlete participation numbers within a reasonable limit."

The president said that weightlifting also needs to modernize its image to stay relevant to the Olympic Movement.

With that mind in, the Strategic Plan considers some changes for the future.

In 2022, the IWF staged the first Street Weightlifting competition in Lausanne, Switzerland, and a mixed-team competition was staged at the inaugural European Weightlifting Federation Cup in Olympia, Greece, in October.

"We are open to innovation and to weightlifting formulas that can reach a wider audience, and can effectively get closer to the youth and all those practicing our sport (both in an indoor facility or in an outdoor environment)," Jallod said.

Xinhua