Two successful Latin Americans, crucial in determining weightlifting’s Olympic future

Two women from the Latin American Olympic world played an important role in what appears to be a new era of an international federation at risk.

Ximena Restrepo, the first Colombian Olympic medalist, vice president of World Athletic and technical director of the 2023 Pan American Games, and Damaris Young, a former basketball player, renowned jurist in sports law and the first woman to head the Panamanian Olympic Committee, were part of the team of Independent Experts who contributed to the new constitution of the International Weightlifting Federation.

The third independent analyst, Australian lawyer Darren Kane, was appointed chairman of the IWF Reform and Governance Commission.

Due to scheduling problems, Restrepo was unable to travel to Doha to attend the IWF Constitutional Reform Congress last Sunday, but her colleague Young participated and at one point during the discussions was able to tell the audience that it was “a very complex, time-consuming job.”

The overwhelming vote in favor of the submitted draft seemed to surprise those who expected great tensions and bitter confrontations.

“That result seemed to ratify the great desire of the whole weightlifting family to remain part of the Olympic Movement,” Young, the first woman president of a NOC in the history of Central America and a member of the IOC’s Athletes’ Environment Commission, told Around The Rings.

Of the 133 member federations, more than two-thirds voted in favor of the new measures, an important signal sent in the run-up to the IOC Executive Board meeting on September 8.

While Olympic leaders could be updated on international federations such as boxing and weightlifting, the agenda items most in focus would be the humanitarian operation with representatives of the Afghanistan Olympic movement and the first post-Tokyo 2020 review.

The IOC would take note of the final deliberations of the second and last part of the IWF Congress in Qatar and would continue to await the elections of a new leadership next December, without taking any definitive decision, according to some analysts consulted.

Already in June, the forum opened with the acceptance of all the proposals in the anti-doping procedures of the other independent sector: the International Testing Agency (ITA) and the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).

Pressure from the IOC has forced a process of unprecedented reforms at the IWF, which is trying to distance itself from its threatened Olympic status after its credibility crisis due to doping scandals and acts of corruption. In the meantime, athletes have had to suffer drastic reductions in weight categories in the Olympic competitive system and no one imagines that they could disappear from the Olympic program.

“No doubt the upcoming elections will differ from previous electoral processes,” says Young.

“As part of the adoption of the new Constitution there are eligibility criteria to be met and that is healthy for the IWF.

“Whether or not that criteria is met will not be at the discretion of members of the IWF Executive or Commissions but of independent people who will decide whether the person is eligible or not.

“The task now for all IWF members is to ensure that the leadership they choose understands the importance and significance of the three-year Olympic cycle for the future of the IWF.

The Reform and Governance Commission was also composed of IWF officials but with a very active role of the three independent experts compiling and receiving proposals from national federations and meeting for 10 months with athletes, coaches, representatives of the IWF, ASOIF, GAISF, ITA and WADA.

In this way they arrived at final recommendations and legal tools in areas such as athlete representation, mandate limits, responsibilities and transparency.

The Panamanian lawyer denied that external pressures have interfered in their performance.

“Influences of one kind or another, from all sides, can always be noticed on a daily basis.”

“That is where obviously the discretion, professionalism and knowledge of each one is the one that must prevail”.

“As a lawyer, as a human being, we are exposed to this type of influences, that is normal, but I personally did not feel any undue pressure of any kind”.