Weightlifting Forums

erpel wrote: ↑Mon Nov 03, 2025 4:11 pm https://iwf.sport/2025/11/03/bodyweight ... e-defined/

Breathtakingly stupid. All of this effort just to have non Olympic categories again. At least the categories are not as bad as they could have been

We should probably have a separate weight class thread at this rate there are so many changes.

Imagine you are young lifter starting out in early 2018. You don't fill out the 77kg class. Along comes 73kg and 81kg classes, so you choose to cut down to be more competitive and continue to do so for several tough years. Then along comes the 79kg class - perfect! And you have your best ever performances, but before the year is out the IWF decides to make further changes and you have to choose between 75kg and 85kg.

I'm going to have to give one of my lifters a hug today at training.

There's one (1) light category for women in the OG. They are insane.

erpel wrote: ↑Tue Nov 04, 2025 6:44 am There's one (1) light category for women in the OG. They are insane.

Yeah its wild that 69, 77 and 86 are all Olympic classes.

https://iwf.sport/wp-content/uploads/do ... r-2025.pdf

New TCRR published today.
I have some (microscopically small) level of sympathy for the IWF in that there simply is no way to put together 6 categories well.
I would start higher than what erpel posted (63, 50-51) and with smaller proportionality, but there's no way to escape big jumps.

To then constrain 8 categories around those 6 brings in the old problem of non-Olympic categories (I thought we were supposed to be rid of them??) and makes some of those categories uncompetitive.

Hawkpeter wrote: ↑Tue Nov 04, 2025 9:00 am Yeah its wild that 69, 77 and 86 are all Olympic classes.

As always, categories are a product of politics. Last time there was a research/data-informed approach, it was mangled beyond recognition by the EB.
As it stands, a larger number of the EB members and their federations would benefit more from heavier classes across men and women.

erpel wrote: ↑Tue Nov 04, 2025 6:44 am There's one (1) light category for women in the OG. They are insane.

White masters lifters will complain there is no women's 93 and that it's personally screwing them so that they can't win a state masters medal at 93kg age 40-44 (the superheavies totaled 3kg more than the 86kg who totaled less than the 77s and the 69s, matching the 63s). This is clearly more important than ensuring equitable distribution of categories and competitiveness across all 5 continents. Fuck south east asians, south asians and central americans. Guatemalans should simply be taller and fatter

May as well post this here.

'The Trapani Prosecutor’s Office has requested a 10-year sentence for Antonino Pizzolato, Olympic podium weightlifter in Tokyo and Paris, accused together with three other individuals of sexual assault against a Finnish tourist in July 2022.'

https://lapresse.us/news/2025/12/06/tra ... hXRAoDGMBQ

Beatriz Piron DOM (48/49) will compete at the Enhanced Games

https://www.enhanced.com/newsroom/addit ... nced-games

Hawkpeter wrote: ↑Tue Dec 09, 2025 4:49 am May as well post this here.

'The Trapani Prosecutor’s Office has requested a 10-year sentence for Antonino Pizzolato, Olympic podium weightlifter in Tokyo and Paris, accused together with three other individuals of sexual assault against a Finnish tourist in July 2022.'

https://lapresse.us/news/2025/12/06/tra ... hXRAoDGMBQ

We haven't heard from anyone here for a while. I saw that Nino had started training again and was posting on his Instagram, so I thought the matter no longer concerned him. I was wrong.

'The document, purportedly submitted by a coalition of individuals across multiple continents - including member federations, technical officials, and delegates, paints a troubling picture of pre-arranged outcomes, compromised democratic processes, and ethical breaches at the highest levels of the sport. Due to an alleged 'climate of intimidation,' these sources have requested to remain anonymous.'

https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles ... leadership

My question is, who adheres to rules better, athletes and coaches to the competition rules of the sport or administrators to the governance rules of the sport?