The International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) announced the selection of Tirana, Albania as host of the 2022 IWF Electoral Congress on Thursday. The announcement came after the conclusion of a vote held by the IWF Executive Board.
The Executive Board had invited interested national federations to submit their nominations for host as part of an open tender process in advance of the most recent IWF Executive Board meeting. In the end, ten countries ultimately submitted a nomination.
Each country was given a chance to present their proposal to the IWF Executive Board before a secret ballot was conducted to select a host. Tirana won the right to host with a majority of the vote. The IWF called Tirana “a neutral setting” as there are no candidates from Albania up for election.
“We have had overwhelming interest from around the world from cities and countries interested in hosting our electoral congress,” said IWF General Secretary Mohamed Jaloud.
“It was a very hard decision, but we are looking forward to going to Tirana. We are confident that they will deliver a flawless event and ensure that the weightlifting family is supported on all levels. We could not ask for a better partner.”
IWF Interim President Michael Irani also commented on the announcement, stating, “we are so pleased to be heading to Tirana for the 2022 IWF Electoral Congress.”
He explained, “this is a very important milestone for us, as we were asked by our Olympic partners to address three issues this past year – first updating our constitution which has been completed, second cleaning up our sport from doping which we are happy to report that there have been zero cases in Tokyo 2020 and now the election coming up this summer will complete all three.”
“I am looking forward to the congress and to the important decisions we will make for the future of our sport,” concluded Irani.
The future of weightlifting will likely be on the minds of those attending the 2022 IWF Electoral Congress after the sport was left off the initial sports program for the LA28 Summer Olympics.
In their announcement of the initial sports program last year, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) revealed three sports - boxing, modern pentathlon and weightlifting - that had been included on the sports program for the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics, had been left off the initial sports program for the LA28 Summer Olympics.
However, each of the three sports was provided with a pathway towards potential reinstatement to the Olympic sports program. For weightlifting, this meant the IWF needed to “demonstrate its transition towards compliance and an effective change of culture,” and “successfully address the historical incidence of doping in the sport and ensure the integrity, robustness and full independence of its anti-doping program.”
If the IOC finds that the outlined criteria was met by the IWF, a decision on whether or not to reinstate weightlifting into the Olympic sports program may come during the 2023 IOC Session in Mumbai, India.
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