A brand new report particulars the efforts made by weightlifting’s paperwork to police the game for drug abusers forward of the 2024 Olympics.
Final up to date on June 4th, 2024
The 2024 Olympics start in about two months. Paris will host 120 weightlifters — the fewest in a long time — as a downstream consequence of the Worldwide Weightlifting Federation’s (IWF) years-long negligence of policing corruption and performance-enhancing drug abuse.
Nonetheless, issues appear to be trying up for the IWF: On Could 30, 2024, the group printed a report detailing its efforts, in tandem with the Worldwide Testing Company (ITA), in curbing PED use all through 2023.
[Related: The Best Weightlifting Shoes on the Market]
We’re going to the touch on crucial facets of the IWF & ITA reporting and assist you to perceive the way it has affected weightlifting’s standing as a world sport, plus what the longer term holds for the finest weightlifters on this planet.
Steroid Abuse in Weightlifting: 2023
In keeping with the IWF, it and the ITA are pleased with the progress made all through 2023 in monitoring a sport whose athletes have nakedly abused steroids to improve power in years previous.
- 3,192 particular person samples have been collected from internationally aggressive weightlifters throughout 109 international locations in 2023.
- Of these exams, 1,766 have been collected throughout IWF weightlifting meets, whereas 1,426 exams have been carried out on athletes exterior of aggressive venues.
- 2,403 urine exams have been carried out, whereas the ITA sampled 789 athletes’ blood.
- The IWF and ITA discovered 18 samples that constituted an Anti-Doping Rule Violation (ADRV).
Notably, there was an almost even cut up in exams collected from women and men athletes: 52 and 48 %, respectively.
An ADRV refers to any PED-related infraction, obstruction of the sample-taking course of, and even an athlete’s failure to inform the IWF or ITA of their whereabouts, per official IWF coverage paperwork.
In keeping with the identical report issued one yr prior, the IWF and ITA collected 3,555 samples in 2022 — that yr’s World Weightlifting Championships in Bogota, Colombia, marked the opening of the Paris qualification interval — and marked 65 ADRVs.
From 2022 to 2023, the variety of ADRVs recognized by the IWF and ITA fell roughly 72 %. Nonetheless, the organizations did conduct fewer exams general.
[Related: The Best Weightlifting Belts You Can Buy]
Why It Issues
The IWF’s regulatory developments come at a essential second for weightlifting’s fame as an Olympic occasion. Following a collection of developments in 2020 and 2021, together with the publication of a now-famous documentary on the game’s drug points plus the resignation of former IWF President Tamas Ajan, weightlifting was positioned on conditional standing as a Video games occasion.
Solely two quick years later, and underneath the steering of recent IWF President Mohammed Jalood, the game had made sufficient progress to be ratified as an Olympic occasion at each the 2024 and 2028 Summer time Video games in Los Angeles.
100 and twenty weightlifters, in groups of as much as six from particular person international locations, will battle for gold in Paris this August. Ought to the IWF and ITA proceed their momentum towards “clear sport,” weightlifting followers are prone to see their sport broaden its presence on the Olympic stage in 2028 after years of marginalization.
[Opinion: Why Weightlifting Sucks To Watch in 2024]
Extra Weightlifting Information
Featured Picture: Jessie Johnson / @barbellstories