The IWF has been working quickly to implement several changes demanded by the IOC regarding the federation, and stricter doping testing, under the direction of Jalood, who was elected last year.
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The International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) is preparing to give its final report on a series of essential reforms as it strives to earn back its position at the Olympics, according to IWF President Mohamed Jalood. The sport was preliminarily dropped from the 2028 Los Angeles Games program by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) due to years of corruption, doping, and governance scandals. This resulted in the exit of the former weightlifting president Tamas Ajan in 2020.
The IWF has been working quickly to implement several changes demanded by the IOC regarding the federation, and stricter doping testing, under the direction of Jalood, who was elected last year. Among the changes driven through in recent months by the IWF include a revised constitution, enhanced representation of women, and an increase in athletes’ presence on its governance panels, while also supporting a maximum of three conditions for those in charge.
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Jalood highlighted the importance of obeying all the guidelines coming from the IOC to enhance the federation’s chances of being included at the Olympics. “If we follow all the recommendations from the IOC then the evaluation, believe me, will be very good for us. On March 30 we have an (IWF) executive board meeting. We will write the final report … all that was done that was required from the IOC. It will be very important, and we will complete the picture,” he said in an interview with Reuters.
As the primary source of revenue for the organization comes from Olympic Games revenues every four years, the IWF is highly reliant on its Olympic involvement to keep functioning. Weightlifting has been afflicted with doping scandals, and the federation has doubled its efforts to combat this issue. The Independent Testing Agency (ITA) was given control of drug testing by the International Wrestling Federation (IWF) a few years ago. The IWF is expecting that this will put a stop to the constant doping headlines. “The ITA has done a lot for us and you can see the results. In the last Olympic Games in Tokyo, zero doping (in weightlifting). The culture of many countries has completely changed,” Jalood said.
Weightlifting will still be part of the 2024 Games in Paris, though with a significant cut in its athlete quota, and Jalood said the priority was ensuring that it appears at each Olympics going forward. “Weightlifting is the basic sport. From 1896 only nine sports started, weightlifting was one of the nine sports,” he added.
The International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) will have to decide on the eligibility of Russian and Belarusian athletes for the Paris 2024 Olympics, alongside the release of the report which will determine the future of Weightlifting in the Olympics. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) had previously sanctioned Russia and Belarus after the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. However, the IOC is now hesitant to exclude them from Paris due to concerns over the revival of the boycotts of the Cold War era. The IOC has provided a pathway for these competitors to earn Olympic slots through Asian qualifying and has left the international federations to decide how to manage it.
