Ursula Garza Papandrea: “If we’re not in the Olympic Games, you’ve effectively stolen the Olympic dream from every athlete who comes after this”

Ursula Garza Papandrea calls the upcoming elections for 17 seats on the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) Executive Board “critical” in determining the embattled sport’s future.

“It’s either the beginning of something,” the general secretary of USA Weightlifting told Around the Rings, “or the end.”

Garza Papandrea, a former interim president of the federation, is running for president — along with nearly a dozen other candidates — at the IWF Electoral Congress beginning Saturday in Tirana, Albania.

Most of the contenders, including Garza Papandrea, are also on the ballot for secretary general treasurer as well as vice president and executive board member. There are another 10 executive board seats that are not part of this election.

Garza Papandrea said the people who are elected must work together as weightlifting fights to remain on the Olympic program.

“It has to be a team, because we need to as a collective come up with solutions that are going to serve the sport,” she said. “The success for any position — for every person on that executive board — is going to be dependent on who else they’re with. Everybody is important. Every single person needs to be someone bringing something new, positive, creative to the table, who has discipline and good character.”

Weightlifting was one of the original sports when the modern Olympic Games began in 1896. However, weightlifting, boxing and modern pentathlon are not on the initial program for the LA28 Olympic Games and must prove they belong back in the fold.

“If we’re not in the Olympic Games, you’ve effectively stolen the Olympic dream from every athlete who comes after this,” Garza Papandrea said. “The leaders of the IWF shouldn’t have the ability to make that call and to take that away. It would be like taking the Super Bowl away from football players in America.

“We are stewards of the sport and we have to preserve and build and make the sport better, not decrease it’s prestige.”

Garza Papandrea, 52, titled her manifesto “Courage to Change.”

“The system that was in place for decades is just entrenched, and everybody only knows one way of doing things,” she said. “Change isn’t just for the sake of change; it’s to make it better.”

Garza Papandrea said governance and the fight against doping are the issues that have put the sport’s Olympic future in jeopardy and must be addressed to the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) satisfaction.

“Good governance is the foundation upon which we need to build everything else,” she said. “If we can do that, the outcome is naturally better.

Garza Papandrea added the IWF also needs “the discipline to follow good governance.”

All anti-doping measures, she said, should be embedded in the federation’s policies — including Olympic qualification — and decisions on doping matters should be handed over to independent bodies. “We have to maintain that distance and allow the independence in anti-doping to remain unfettered, unbothered, untouched by anyone from the IWF,” she said.

USA Weightlifting President Paula Aranda was originally running for president and other positions on the executive board, but the Americans don’t have to worry about votes being split because Aranda withdrew her candidacy. However, she is on the ballot to serve on commissions.

Garza Papandrea is a seasoned innovator. At the Friendship Cup July 1-3 in Las Vegas, which will be held in conjunction with the USA Championships, the layout will have the warmup platforms out front (instead of in the back) which will give spectators a behind-the-scenes look at the sport.

“You have to be willing to experiment a little in exhibition matches to see what kind of format would be viable and attractive,” she said. “Considering we have some real problems with attracting media and spectators, it seems natural that we would be more curious about other ways of presenting the sport.

“That’s why I use the word courage. You have to be a little brave to say, ‘OK we’re going to try something new. If it works, it works. If it doesn’t, we’ll go back to the drawing board.”

Garza Papandrea has been involved with weightlifting for 35 years, including 12 on the USA Weightlifting executive board. She moved to the international level in 2017 as women’s commission chair, vice president and then president briefly in 2020.

In her letter to weightlifting stakeholders, Garza Papandrea pointed out as interim president she, “introduced critical financial policy changes, proposals for the Athletes Commission and Reform and Governance Commission, and quickly engaged in a mutually supportive relationship with the IOC.”

The IOC stated on its website in 2020 it “enjoyed excellent cooperation with her during her time in office and is fully supportive of the reforms she has initiated in the IWF.”

Now Garza Papandrea wants to continue helping the sport move forward.

“When I worked with the IOC, I was able to quickly develop a relationship with them and a trust,” Garza Papandrea said, “and that is what we are missing. Whatever leaders we put in need to be people the IOC and LA28 will trust to do the things they say they’re going to do.”