As someone who has devoted the vast majority of his life to the Olympic sport of Weightlifting, the latest news from the International Weightlifting Federation frustrates me even more than usual, and adds more headache to an already troubling situation.
For those that don’t know, Weightlifting is in danger of being removed from the Olympic Games, due to rampant doping/steroid use. While I am completely against cheating using performance enhancing drugs, and despise those that do so, our sport is not the only, nor the biggest abuser, but we have become the whipping boy in a CYA/Save Face movement to showcase a so called “clean sport” initiative by the International Olympic Committee.
In an effort to clean up the sport, longtime IWF President, Tamas Ajan was pressured to resign, and USA’s Ursula Papandrea was named interim President in April 2020. On Tuesday, the IWF Board removed Papandrea, without prior notification, and placed Thailand’s Intarat Yodbangtoey as new interim President.
Why is this a big deal? Thailand, along with several other countries(7 of which are represented on the IWF Board) was banned from competing in what would have been the Tokyo 2020 Olympics due to as many as 17 recent doping violations, many of which were Junior and Youth/Teenage athletes.
The USA is no saint, but when a sport that is in danger of removal from the Olympics, decides to put in charge the head of a federation guilty of a state-sponsored program that dopes teenage athletes, and has been banned from Olympic competition, that spells disaster for our sport.
I don’t pretend to know all the politics, or inner workings, and I know bribery and corruption are widespread in this sport, as in most sports, but something this blatant and unapologetic can ultimately be what kills our sport.
As a husband, father, and Coach of competitive weightlifters, I am outraged and completely discouraged by this latest development. Unsure of what the future now holds, we at the HWC will continue to keep our heads down, keep grinding, staying hopeful that things will change, and being prepared for when they do.