MAJOR CHANGES coming to the World of Weightlifting in 2018 !!!

The Sport of Olympic Weightlifting is on the verge of making monumental and sweeping changes in the coming Months. Changes the likes have not been seen since the introduction of woman into the Olympics in 2000. Bellow I delve deeper into what has lead to this, and give my insight into what likely changes I see taking place.

While most of the Weightlifting world wait in anticipation of the 2017 World Weightlifting Championships set to begin next week in Anaheim, a handful of delegates have been behind closed doors deciding the fate of our sport.

Those handful of delegates are part of the Weightlifting Working Group of Olympic Results and Information services, or ORIS for short. They have been tasked with deciding on the new Olympic Qualification systems, Competition format including event field size as well as the introduction of new body-weight categories, which is a major change.

I digress. Let’s investigate why these changes are going to take place and what led up to this.

Chief reasons are that the International Olympic Committee (I.O.C) is effectively reprimanding the International Weightlifting Federation (I.W.F) for the number of positive doping cases from previous Olympic Games (2008 and 2012) and are in search of alternate solutions to avoid such incidents reoccurring in the future.

 

Sadly, at those Games there were no less than 56 Positive results for performance enhancing Drugs. This was a huge concern for the IOC and decision to enforce new regulations was a must. As a result, they threatened the IWF with expulsion from the Olympics all together unless they could clean up their act. To further reiterate their stance, the IOC decided to reduce the overall number of competitors from 260, down to 196, as well as eliminating one male body-weight category. They used the ruse that by reducing the number of men’s body-weight divisions from 8 down to 7: it would bring about further gender equality as both Men and Women would now have 7 Body-weight divisions. But everyone knows that this was effectively a slap on the wrist from the IOC to the IWF to make sure they realize the full extent of their predicament. Which is simple: Clean up your sport, or you are out of the Olympic Games.

So what are these changes going to be? First and foremost, they have to decide on which men’s body-weight category to cut. I have spoke with someone who is a member of this committee, and all they could tell me, was that there will be all new body-weight categories, and only one athlete per Nation will be allowed per medal event. Basically meaning that China can’t double up the lighter divisions with two medal contenders. They have also reduced the number of athletes per flight to 14, effectively eliminating the "B" session from the Olympics. However, what I found most surprising, was that they are seriously considering adding a new lift into the competition format. YES, a completely NEW LIFT in competition for Weightlifting.

Bellow are my thought on what I feel the new body-weight categories could be. This is by no means a certainty, and I am merely speculating here. But I can see the new categories looking similar to below;

	Men's Current: (2017)	Men's Olympic (2020)
1	56 kg (123 lbs)	58 kg (127 lbs)
2	62 kg (137 lbs)	66 kg (145 lbs)
3	69 kg (152 lbs)	75 kg (170)
4	77 kg ( 170 lbs)	86 kg (189 lbs)
5	85 kg (187 lbs)	98 kg (215 lbs)
6	94 kg (207 lbs)	111 kg (244 lbs)
7	105 kg (231 lbs)	111 kg + (244 lbs+)
8	105 + kg (231 lbs +)
	Woman's Current: (2017)	Woman's Olympic (2020)
1	48 kg (106 lbs)	50 kg (110 lbs)
2	53 kg (117 lbs)	56 kg (123 lbs)
3	58 kg (128 lbs)	62 kg (137 lbs)
4	63 kg ( 139 lbs)	69 kg (152 lbs)
5	69 kg (152 lbs)	78 kg (171 lbs)
6	75 kg (165 lbs)	90 kg (198 lbs)
7	90 kg (198 lbs)	90 kg + (198 lbs +)
8	90 + (198 lbs +)

Now on to the real game changer. A possible third lift in competition. What do I think they could/would/should include?

Up until the late 80’s the sport already had three lifts. The Snatch, the Clean and Jerk, and the Press. Below is an example of the Press in competition. 

The Press was eventually eliminated in favor of the two lifts we currently have today, the Snatch and the Clean and Jerk. I think the general consensus was that the Press was no longer a Power Movement, but a strength movement more akin to the Sport of Powerlifting.

With that said, I do not see them bringing in a discipline that mimics or encroaches on the sport of Powerlifting. We are not going to see a deadlift or squat anytime soon in Olympic Weightlifting. Weightlifting is about power and generating explosive force, not a strength movement. They need to find a movement that is technical, and explosive, but neither the snatch or Clean and Jerk.

Now I know I will take some flack for this from certain circles, but has anyone ever consider a “thruster”? Yes, I said it, THRUSTER!!!

Or more precisely, a Clean directly into a Push Press (Thruster). We have already had a PRESS in competition before, so why not add the more athletic Thruster into the mix. I also think it would be a great nod to Crossfit’s influence and impact on the Sport of Olympic Weightlifting over the last 15 years.

The competition format would be first the Snatch, followed by the Clean into Push Press, and finally the Clean and Jerk, with the combination of all three lifts equaling your Total lifted. The Winner would be the athlete whom lifted the combined most weight for all three lifts.

Now that’s something to ponder over. The committee meets on the 25-26^th of November to make their final recommendations to the IWF. With the World Championships taking place in Anaheim USA the following week, I do not see them making any announcements until the new year.

You can however be certain that in the new year there will be major, and monumental announcements in the sport of Olympic Weightlifting.

And now, we wait with bated breath… What do you think the third lift will be?

GENDER EQUALITY, DRUGS & the OLYMPIC DILEMMA.

GENDER EQUALITY, DRUGS & the OLYMPIC DILEMMA.

I remember the day it was announced that woman would be allowed to compete in the Sport of Weightlifting. Up until that point, weightlifting had been exclusively a Male only sport for close on 100 years. I was excited, hey I was a teenager competing on an all male sport. Of course I was looking forward to having some female competitors around the training hall.

Then I remember the announcement of the weight categories, and the subsequent changing of the men’s’ weight categories. At that stage I was a 64 kg lifter. That was (and still is) my natural division. The men’s division was split right down the middle, creating a 62, and 69 kg class. In the 20 years since, I have bounced back and forth between both, never quite being comfortable cutting to 62kg, but also never having gone heavier that 67kg. Which means I was literally stuck between weight classes.

My first International where Woman competed alongside men was the 1997 World Junior Weightlifting Championships Cape Town. I remember how awesome it was to have lifters from all over the world, both men and woman at the same tournament. I distinctly remember being rather enamored by one female US lifter. She was strikingly beautiful. I had never before seen such a beautiful woman lifting weights. Back then it was still a very new sport for woman. There was still a stigma attached to the sport, and very few were brave enough to venture into the mans world of weightlifting.

 

A few weeks ago the International Olympic committee decided to drop one men’s category from the Weightlifting event at the 2020 Olympics. Bring for the first time an equal number of bodyweight categories for both men and woman to 7 each. This marks an end to the female lifters meteoric rise to the top of a sport once dominated by men. The number of woman now competing in the sport has surpassed that of men. And let’s face it, the general public are more likely to watch an attractive woman lifting weights than a muscle bound man. Weightlifting social media is dominated by attractive woman lifting heavy weight. The old adage that lifting weights will make a woman more muscular and less attractive has been completely obliterated by the rise of beautiful, talented, and immensely strong athletes in the likes of Mattie Rogers.  (pictured below)

The IOC’s decision to drop one men’s category was not entirely due to gender equality. Unfortunately, there is a much larger, uglier elephant in the room. Doping. It is no secret that the sport of Weightlifting has always had a higher number of athletes looking for a competitive edge by the use of performance enhancing drugs. Never before has this prevalence of PED’s been more in the spotlight. The number of athletes caught doping in the last 2 Olympics has been appalling. An utter disgrace to the sport. The pandemic of doping has become so bad the IOC has sent a clear message to the sport of Weightlifting with the exclusion of one men’s category. It will no longer be tolerated. I honesty fear that if there is again such a high number of athletes caught doping at the 2020 Olympics that the sport will be stripped from the games entirely. This is no longer a threat, but a distinct reality.

 

I recall the day I made the realization that I was never going to be an Olympic Gold Medalist in the sport of Weightlifting. It was one of the most devastating, yet eye opening events of my life. I was in a Sauna before an International Event in Athens (98, or 99) trying to cut weight. I was joined in the sauna by a multiple World Record Holder and Gold medalist. I was in awe. Here was one of my heroes. Someone who’s poster used to hang on my wall. Someone I idolized. We spoke briefly, I remember how down to earth and relaxed he was. We where happily chatting away when I couldn’t help myself but to ask.

“How do you become a champion”.

His answer not only surprised me, but left me completed dumbfounded and gutted me as an athlete, and a lifelong clean competitor.

In his broken English he said this;

“He who has the best chemist, will always be the best”

I think that speaks for itself. That was the very moment that I knew spending my entire life training for a dream, that would never happen, would be in vain. That was the day the music died for me.

Thankfully there is a light at the end of the tunnel. After almost a decade in the athletic wilderness, away from the one thing I loved most, I found my way back into the sport as a “Master” Lifter. 

 

I have now come to realize that “Master Weightlifters” are the true champions of the sport. They are the ones that dedicate not years, but decades of their lives to the sport. Gone are the sponsors, money, accolades and applause. Yet Master lifters continue lifting, not for glory, but for the pure love of the sport.

If only all lifters could say the same.