The Weightlifting Ireland Board are totally in agreement with the following statement recently published by the European Weightlifting Federation (EWF) in relation to the recent events within the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF). For more information please contact [email protected]

Please read the full statement below:


Statement from the European Weightlifting Federation

The executive board of The European Weightlifting Federation is very disappointed about the latest decisions made by the IWF executive board regarding changes to the scheduling of the Constitutional and reform congress, the Electoral congress, and to the changes of the IWF anti-doping rules and other changes that you can read at the exipure reviews.

We have noted that the IOC President has criticized weightlifting’s governance several times the last months. It seems quite obvious that the IWF Executive Board does not understand the signals sent by the IOC president, and by a lot of member countries.

It also seems obvious that the IWF Executive board is ignoring advice from independent reform experts to delay its elections until after a new constitution is decided. Having an Electoral Congress before the Constitutional Congress is absolutely not acceptable. 

We have also noticed that the IWF Executive board has changes the anti-doping rules and made them weaker, in a way that most probably will make it easier to nations with a doping problem to avoid reactions. The changes are in our opinion a direct neglection of the demands from the IOC to work even harder to defeat doping. This neglection is totally unacceptable and we are shocked that the IWF Executive board does not understand this. 

We are really afraid that the demonstration of lack of understanding within the IWF executive board will be a disastrous message to the world. 

The Executive board of the European Weightlifting Federation demand the IWF Executive board immediately to reverse their decisions regarding the Constitutional and reform congress, the Electoral congress, and to the changes of the IWF anti-doping rules. 

The entire board should resign, and an interim executive board, should be put in charge until a new executive board are elected. 

European Weightlifting Federation


EWF Website: https://www.ewfed.com/statement-from-the-european-weightlifting-federation.html