IWF

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Recorded May 13, 2026

Foundational federation milestone — IWF traces its rule-making lineage to a 1905 Duisburg meeting, making it among the oldest continuously-operating international sport federations. The IWF's predecessor organization, the Amateur-Athleten-Weltunion (Amateur Athletes World Union), was founded on 10 June 1905 in Duisburg, Germany. The Amateur-Athleten-Weltunion governed both weightlifting and wrestling jointly until 1920, when the federation split into separate organizations for the two sports — at which point the weightlifting branch became the Fédération Internationale de Poids et Halteres (renamed in English to International Weightlifting Federation in 1972). Every modern IWF rule on the snatch and clean-and-jerk lifts, bodyweight categories, technical officiating, and Olympic competition format descends from the rule-making mandate established at this 1905 Duisburg founding.

Recorded May 9, 2026

Federation rename milestone — 67 years after the 1905 Duisburg founding and 52 years after the 1920 split that created the Fédération Internationale de Poids et Halteres. In 1972, the Federation officially changed to the English version of its name, by which it is now known: the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF). The 1972 rename anglicized the federation name to align with the dominant Olympic-movement language and reflected weightlifting's globalization beyond its European origins. All modern IWF rules — Technical Rules, Anti-Doping Rules, Constitution — descend under the IWF name from this 1972 change.

Recorded May 9, 2026

Most consequential modern governance event for the IWF. In 2020, in response to the Tamás Aján doping and corruption scandal that erupted that year (following the McLaren-style independent investigation that revealed concealed doping cases dating back decades), the IWF — temporarily run by interim acting president Ursula Papandrea — initiated relocation of its headquarters from Aján's home city of Budapest, Hungary to Lausanne, Switzerland. The 2020 relocation also coincided with the start of constitutional reform: independent ethics oversight, term limits, and IOC-aligned governance structure. Every subsequent IWF rule decision (anti-doping, bodyweight categories, Olympic event slate) operates under the post-2020 reformed governance model, not the pre-scandal Aján-era structure.

Recorded May 9, 2026

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Recorded Mar 22, 2026