IWF to push for more Olympic Games places on “journey of positive change”

International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) is still waiting to hear whether the sport is back on the programme for Los Angeles 2028 – but after an important vote it is already gearing up to push for more medal events at Brisbane 2032.

During a daytime break in the IWF World Championships, which run until Sunday (August 17) in Riyadh, delegates from 114 nations unanimously approved a “roadmap for the future” that will guide the sport away from its troubled past on “a journey of positive change”.

A 39-page Strategic Plan document lays out the IWF’s plans based on four pillars that cover athletes, events, governance, and marketing and communications.

The document covers the period 2024 to 2032 and highlights more than 100 actions and strategies that will come into effect gradually from next year.

It will be monitored and updated along the way by the nine-person steering group that created it, chaired by IWF interim chief executive and communications director Pedro Adrega, who told Congress that the Plan was “ambitious yet realistic.”

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Under the athletes’ pillar, the “roadmap” declares the IWF’s intent to seek a bigger presence for weightlifting in Brisbane.

Its athlete quota has been slashed since 2016 by more than half to 120 for Paris 2024, where there will be 10 medal events.

For LA 2028 there are none, because the International Olympic Committee (IOC) removed weightlifting from the schedule two years ago after a doping and corruption scandal and a series of governance failures.

Reforms have been pushed through under a new leadership since June last year and the IWF is confident that the IOC will change its mind about LA 2028. A decision is expected in the next few weeks.

The target documented in the Strategic Plan is 16 medal events for Brisbane 2032, eight each for men and women, and 160 athletes.

Another Olympic-related aim is to build better relations with the IOC by increasing the presence of IWF officials on IOC Commissions, inviting IOC members to major events – the member for Cuba is in Riyadh – and periodically inviting the IOC President and senior leaders to IWF Executive Board meetings.

The ultimate goal is to have an IOC member “representing” weightlifting.

Like many other of those actions and strategies, the plan to seek bigger Olympic quotas is good news for athletes – “the central pillar of our sport” according to IWF President Mohammed Jalood.

Athletes will be “humanised” at competitions in a way that enhances their status and improves the viewing experience for spectators and broadcast audiences.

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The IWF accepts that unattractive sport presentation is one of weightlifting’s weaknesses, which can make it “repetitive and unexciting to casual spectators”.

Athlete introductions will get a makeover while those for technical officials will be reviewed.

There will be better use of graphics, and more use of images and other athlete information on the scoreboard in breaks between lifts and sessions.

Champions and world record holders will be rewarded when a prize money policy is drawn up.

“We must tell the stories of our athletes, they are our stars,” Adrega told Congress. “They deserve optimal conditions.”

Off the platform, the IWF will work on a personal level with the sport’s stars, use digital platforms to give athletes more of a voice and more exposure, create an ambassador programme for major events, use retired athletes as role models in different parts of the world, and establish an annual awards event.

Educational programmes will be created “aimed at preventing injuries and mental health problems in weightlifting” and there will be “alert mechanisms to deal with harassment or violence in the sport, namely through the appointed Integrity and Safeguarding Officer”.

Further support in the form of athlete scholarships is being sought by the Athletes Commission, whose chair Forrester Osei said there was also strong support for a new Transition Programme to help athletes into coaching or officiating roles at the end of their career.

“Athletes speak with passion about this – they want an opportunity to stay in the sport,” Osei said.

The programme would guide retired athletes on to the pathway for a coaching licence or towards becoming an International Technical Official.

They will be needed in officiating to meet the demands of another of the actions: “Appointing a minimum 30 per cent of young (under 40) International Technical Officials (ITOs) for youth and junior events, ensuring increased opportunities for the younger generation of ITOs.”

There is a commitment to “strengthening tools, mechanisms and sanctions to de-motivate any athlete or member of their entourage to violate the anti-doping rules”.

The Strategic Plan acknowledges that, in an era of video playback, there are too many referees and jury members – eight in total – officiating at each session. A review would “give more authority to each official while reducing the number of ITOs for each session”.

There is an “action towards simplifying the rules”, said Adrega, a topic that caused widespread debate when raised by IWF general secretary Antonio Urso in July at the end of a lengthy consultation process involving 250 stakeholders in the sport.