Thursday, 18 February 2021
The International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) has done a U-turn on its anti-doping rules after criticism from the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
It has also accepted independent advice about the vetting of candidates for next month’s elections, which will be carried out by a panel comprising experts with no links to anybody at the IWF.
Less than four weeks ago Mike Irani, the IWF’s Interim President, said the controversial new anti-doping rules - which effectively made multiple violations less of a problem for offending nations - were a stronger, fairer and more enforceable set of rules than at any point in the IWF’s history .
Tuesday, 9 February 2021
Fourteen members of the troubled International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) Executive Board are on the list of candidates for next month’s elections.
Seven of them are running for President, alongside four nominations who are not on the Board - former IWF Interim President Ursula Papandrea from the United States, Jinqiang Zhou of China, Stian Grimseth of Norway, and Ali Moradi of Iran.
The only IWF Board members not standing for the elections, scheduled for March 26 to 27, are guaranteed a seat anyway, as Presidents of Continental Federations.
The Board s candidates include two representatives from countries that are banned from Tokyo 2020 because of multiple doping violations, another whose nation is likely to join them, a fourth who might, the current Interim President who does not have the support of his own National Federation, and an 85-year-old.
Saturday, 6 February 2021
Why has the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) followed one bad decision with another in recent months, drawing repeated criticism from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) along the way?
Is it weak leadership?
Is it incompetence, negligence or worse?
Or is it maybe the fact that the IWF has been overwhelmed by the sheer weight of work to be done to repair damaged goods?
Perhaps it is a little bit of all of those, but the main motivating factor for a series of questionable decisions by the IWF Executive Board is the strongest one of all: fear.
So many Board members - it could be as many as seven - are making terrible decisions because they are in fear of losing their place in the sport.
New German weightlifting leader takes on Thailand’s Intarat for senior IWF role Wednesday, 20 January 2021
The new President of Germany’s Weightlifting Federation (BVDG) is standing against Intarat Yodbangtoey of Thailand for one of the most senior roles in the sport.
Florian Sperl has spoken out against Intarat’s declaration for the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) elections in March, saying it sends out completely the wrong signal .
He also fears that national federations do not understand the seriousness of the situation in which weightlifting finds itself and that failure to vote for change would cost the sport its place in the Olympic Games.
IWF Interim President Irani encouraged by progress since weightlifting overhaul Tuesday, 29 December 2020
The Interim President of the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF), Mike Irani, has promised to continue taking problems surrounding anti-doping seriously in 2021 after making changes in his short time as the temporary leader of the governing body.
In his end-of-year message, Irani stressed that he was not willing to speak about those actions taken before he was appointed, due to it being under a different leadership, but outlined what had been done since he took up the role in mid-October.
He became Interim President after Thailand’s Intarat Yodbangtoey stood down from the same post after less than two days in office, following criticism from within the sport and from the International Olympic Committee (IOC).