Russia to host 2030 world weightlifting champs in Olympic federation first

PARIS - Moscow was announced on Oct 25 as host of the 2030 world weightlifting championships, with the International Weightlifting Federation becoming the first Olympic federation to hand Russia global staging rights since 2022.

No world championships in an Olympic sport, summer or winter, have been held in Russia since the start of the war against Ukraine.

The 2025 World Aquatics Championships, the hosting rights of which were initially awarded to the Russian city of Kazan, were moved to Singapore.

“Concerning the IWF (Senior) World Championships in 2029, it will be staged in Ahmedabad (India), and Moscow (Russia) will host the 2030 edition,” the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) said in a statement.

IWF general secretary Jose Quinones added that “all the bids we received were excellent and we are sure that the championships in your respective countries will be a huge success”.

In a post on messaging platform Telegram, Russian Weightlifting Federation president Aleksandr Vinokurov thanked the IWF “for their trust”, with the 2030 world champs also serving as a qualifying event for the 2032 Olympic Games.

“Russia has all the necessary experience and capabilities to host competitions of the highest level,” he said.

“Moscow has repeatedly staged major international sporting events and has modern infrastructure.”

The federation toasted its success in snagging the hosting rights.

“The Russian Weightlifting Federation is the first Olympic sports federation to succeed in bringing a top-level official competition back to the country in many years,” it said.

The decision to name Moscow as the host is a ground-breaking one and comes in the wake of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) announcing a pathway for Russian athletes to compete in international competitions.

A state-sponsored doping programme implemented, according to the World Anti-Doping Agency, at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympic Games, and the assault on Ukraine launched by President Vladimir Putin in 2022 resulted in Russians competing in various guises at international competition, most recently as Individual Neutral Athletes.

On July 7, Russia came in from the cold when the IOC eased restrictions on Russian athletes and opened a pathway for them to compete in qualifying events for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.

A furious Ukraine then filed an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport requesting that the IOC decision be annulled. AFP