IWF EB Responds to IOC Concerns, Approves Adoption of Eligibility Criteria for Elections

The IWF Executive Board met on 5 February to address concerns expressed by the IOC and has approved a number of key actions, including the adoption of eligibility criteria aimed at ensuring high standards of governance for the forthcoming IWF elections. The meeting was attended by the Director of the IOC Sports Department Mr. Kit McConnell and an extended delegation from the IWF Athletes Commission.

"The IOC has made its concerns perfectly clear in a number of key areas, including anti-doping rules, athlete representation and the electoral process" said IWF Interim President Dr. Michael Irani. "The IWF Executive Board has acted on these points, in order to help deliver the comprehensive changes we are committed to making in an ambitious timeframe and safeguard the Olympic future of weightlifting. The actions we have taken and are taking will help protect clean weightlifters and add credibility to our anti-doping work. They will ensure the athlete’s voice is given legal backing without delay. And they will ensure a high standard of governance is applied with regard to the eligibility of candidates standing for election to the IWF’s governing bodies," added Dr Irani.

On anti-doping rules, the IWF has requested the IWF Anti-Doping Commission and ITA to review the current rules together, with the aim of submitting a revised and independently-created version to the IWF Executive Board for approval. Consistency between the anti-doping rules and the Tokyo Olympic qualifying system will be a key priority.

On athlete representation, the IWF is working to prepare a proposal to cover the specific point of athlete representation. The proposal will be made to the forthcoming IWF Electoral Congress to ensure a sound legal footing for Athletes Commission voting on the IWF Executive Board without delay, especially in the critical period prior to and during the adoption of constitutional reform.

On applying new and improved standards of governance to the forthcoming elections, as previously announced, the IWF Executive Board strongly supported a proposal for interim rules made by the independent Ethics and Disciplinary Commission. Eligibility checks will be applied to all candidates based on comprehensive criteria.

The interim rules are available on the IWF website here. The list of candidates subject to the eligibility process is available here. Please note that this list is subject to change on the basis of the interim rules that will now be applied by the Ethics and Disciplinary Commission. A final list of candidates will be made public 30 days prior to the IWF elections, scheduled for 26-27 March 2021.

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