IWF President Mohammed Jalood shares his vision for weightlifting’s future amid Olympic challenges and new rivals.
Weightlifting is approaching an inflexion point.
With the 2028 and 2032 Olympic Games fast approaching, the sport’s global leaders are working to secure its place on the biggest stage while navigating new pressures, fresh formats and an evolving commercial landscape.
One of the most provocative new developments is the launch of the Enhanced Games. The proposed Olympic-style event promotes the use of performance-enhancing drugs and includes weightlifting as one of its core sports. Earlier this year, Insider Sport spoke with its Founder, Aron D’Souza.
Now, the leadership of Olympic weightlifting has responded.
International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) President Mohammed Jalood sat down with Insider Sport to share his views on the Enhanced Games, explain where he sees the sport headed and discuss how the IWF is balancing integrity, innovation and commercial partnerships ahead of its 120th anniversary.
As IWF President, what is your vision for the future of the sport?
I must first sincerely thank the IWF family who, at our recent Electoral Congress in Riyadh, honoured me with the confidence and trust to continue serving as their President until 2029.
With this show of unity, we can continue to channel our efforts towards ensuring our sport remains a cornerstone of the Olympic Games. This is mainly achieved by protecting our athletes, improving our events, and exploring new opportunities beyond our usual focus.
I am very proud of what has been achieved under my leadership, but as we look ahead to LA28 and Brisbane 2032, I know that our sport still has so much untapped potential.
What are you doing to drive innovation in weightlifting around the world?
The IWF family is committed to innovation, aiming to grow our sport globally and inspire the next generation of young lifters and fans. One of our main priorities is to enhance the sport’s presentation for TV viewers, digital consumers and fans at our events.
As a concrete example, we recently tested our two-platform format for the second time, and it proved very successful at the IWF World Youth and Junior Championships in Lima. It allows the event to run more quickly and provides a more constant flow of enjoyment for spectators and TV viewers. So, the future is very exciting.
Can you tell us more about the upcoming IWF World Championships being hosted in Forde, Norway, in October?
We are really excited to be heading to Førde, a city that successfully hosted the 2016 edition of the European Championships. Therefore, when the Norwegian Weightlifting Federation and local authorities put forward their bid to host the IWF World Championships in Førde in October 2025, we were confident that it would be a fantastic opportunity for our athletes.
We’ll be bringing many social activities to the central square in Førde, providing a chance to connect our weightlifting community with the community of Førde.
Is the IWF looking for more commercial partnerships and if so, are you targeting specific categories?
We’re always keen to explore new sponsorship and partnership opportunities in sectors that resonate with our audience’s interests and offer exciting growth opportunities for the athletes. Two of our existing partners in SBD and SPORTFIVE are doing exactly this. SBD for supporting our lifters with world-class apparel and accessories, SPORTFIVE for expanding our broadcast reach and introducing our sport to new audiences.
Even more recently, we formally signed the official supplier 2025-2028 agreement with barbell manufacturers Eleiko and ZKC, who have been associated with weightlifting for many decades.
The third edition of the Swiss Street Weightlifting took place in Lausanne in 2024. What are your future plans for street weightlifting?
Street weightlifting events have proven to be incredibly popular since their introduction in Lausanne in 2022. The competition allows us to take our competitions to urban environments and downtown locations in city centres. With this, we have the opportunity to introduce our sport to new audiences by putting them at the heart of the action.
I am sure this success will lead to the introduction of weightlifting to more streets around the world in the coming years.
What initiatives is the IWF implementing to support the grassroots development of weightlifting?
Our sport is a basic physical activity that is present in every fitness centre around the world, so this, of course, provides a constant opportunity to grow our sport at so many levels. This is something that we will be assessing and acting upon accordingly.
Meanwhile, we have many ongoing programmes to support lifters around the world. For example, our ongoing Development Programme helps athletes in underrepresented regions train and qualify for major events like the IWF World Championships. These initiatives all work towards our vision of making weightlifting a truly global sport, open to everyone, everywhere.
As you are aware, there is a new Olympic-style competition set to launch in 2026 called the Enhanced Games. However, it allows athletes and encourages them to take performance-enhancing drugs. What is your opinion on this event, and would the IWF be open to collaborating with the competition in the future?
The IWF is firmly opposed to the organisation of the 2026 Enhanced Games (where the sport of Weightlifting was announced in the programme) and the danger it poses not just to athlete health but the integrity of sport.
Weightlifting is rooted in the values of transparency, respect and fair competition. These principles are non-negotiable. The Enhanced Games, on the contrary, can potentially put the lives of athletes at risk for supposed entertainment and threaten to undermine trust in the future of sport and the performances of clean athletes.
Over recent years, the IWF has taken decisive action to strengthen integrity and clean sport across all levels of weightlifting. Today, our systems are more robust and transparent than ever before, and we remain fully committed to continuous improvement.
We therefore invite athletes and fans of our sport to witness true strength and integrity at the 2025 IWF World Championships this October in Førde, where fair competition will continue to inspire the next generation around the world.
Finally, together with our partner ITA (International Testing Agency), we are revising our anti-doping rules to specifically address these kinds of cases.
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