Impending IOC Decision Weighs Heavily on Lifters

(ATR) The 2017 IWF World Weightlifting Championships wrap up Tuesday, a day before the sport learns whether it will be suspended from the 2024 Olympics in Paris.

The championships in Anaheim, California have gone off largely without a hitch, according to USA Weightlifting CEO Phil Andrews, who is one of the key organizers of the championships. He says it’s been "one of the smoothest events that we’ve put on."

Andrews does admit that the absence of nine countries, including Russia and China, banned for one year for doping violations has hurt attendance.

"I think we’ve probably seen diluted ticket sales as a result of having some of the bigger names, in particular China, not here. I think that’s a cost we’re happy to accept for the benefit of the sport long term," Andrews tells Around the Rings.

"The Persian population here in Los Angeles has been tremendous in their support for the Iranian team. The American support has been very good and other countries, particularly the South American countries, have had some good turnout. Crowd-wise, not outstanding but good."

In addition to the nine banned countries, the 2017 event is not an Olympic qualifier, lessening the need for lifters to travel to the U.S. to compete. With 324 competitors from 64 nations, it is a smaller field than the 2015 tournament in Houston, Texas.

Andrews says all that shouldn’t diminish the achievements of the United States team, which has broken a 20-year medal drought for the men with 17-year-old Harrison Maurus and a 12-year medal drought for the women with Mattie Rogers.

"You can only beat what’s in front of you and we did that," he says.

"Is it a weaker competition? Well yes and no. They were winning medals but they rightly were sanctioned for the way they won those medals. And I think the other side to that coin is when you look at our lifters and where they were due to place, at least three of our lifters had a shot at [a medal] based on the 2009 and 2013 World Championship history. Why is that important?

"The year after the Olympic Games it is always a slightly down Worlds, if you like, because there’s always less entries and there’s always less countries that attend because it’s a non-Olympic qualification year. So even with those countries here, I do still think we likely would’ve ended our medal drought and we likely would have come away with some impressive results."

As for the IOC decision on Wednesday, Andrews is hopeful the recent sweeping changes proposed by the International Weightlifting Federation will sway the IOC to keep the sport in the Olympics for 2024.

"The conversations I’ve had seem positive and there has been an overwhelmingly positive response from those participating in this championship," he tells ATR.

"We need to bring in stern measures and I think the IWF has done that. I think the IWF recognizes the need for us to work together as well. It’s not possible to drive what we need, which is cultural change, without working with the countries that previously used or previously tested positive in weightlifting. And that’s what I like about the approach they’re taking by including everybody in the process because that’s how you drive buy-in to the process."

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Written and reported by Gerard Farekin Anaheim, California

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