IWF World Championships 2018 Wiki | Records | History | Medal Table

The International Weightlifting Federation or IWF is the current international governing body of the general as well as Olympic weightlifting. The International Weightlifting Federation holds its annual competition of weightlifting each year. And this year is no exception, as they are now organizing the IWF World Championships 2018 in Ashgabat, the capital city of Turkmenistan, from 1^st to 10^th November 2018.

Founded in 1905, the governing body of weightlifting currently has its headquarter in Budapest, Hungary. But even before that, the first ever World Weightlifting Championships took place in March 1891 in London. According to the IWF World Championships history, English weightlifter Edward Lawrence Levy has won the tournament that year.

Background of the IWF World Championships 2018

International Weightlifting Federation or IWF was first established as the Fédération Haltéphile International or FHI in 1905. But, the federation changed to its current name between the 1972 and 1976 Summer Olympics. Besides being a member of the International Olympic Committee, Tamás Aján currently holds the presidential chair of the federation.

The IWF currently has five continental federations under its control – Weightlifting Federation of Africa, Asian Weightlifting Federation, European Weightlifting Federation, Oceania Weightlifting Federation, and Pan American Weightlifting Confederation. And according to the IWF World Championships 2018 wiki stats, weightlifters representing all of these five continentals will compete to win the prestigious medals this year.

IWF World Championships 2018 Categories

Weightlifters competed in 15 different categories (8 for males and 7 for females) in the earlier edition of the IWF World Championships. But since this year, the competition will be organized in 20 categories (10 for males and 10 for females) having 3 events (snatch, clean & Jerk, and total) each.

Men weightlifting categories are – 55 kg, 61 kg, 67 kg, 73 kg, 81 kg, 89 kg, 96 kg, 102 kg, 109 kg, and +109 kg. And, women weightlifting categories are – 45 kg, 49 kg, 55 kg, 59 kg, 64 kg, 71 kg, 76 kg, 81 kg, 87kg, and +87 kg.

IWF World Championships statistics [Last 10 editions]

After the first ever World Weightlifting Championships in 1891, the tournament took place for the second time in 1898. The tournament again took a short break from 1899 and 1903. And since then, the tournament was held each year until 1913 before it started again in 1920. The International Weightlifting Federation has organized its annual event each year after that.

However, the weightlifting tournaments held during the 1964, 1968, 1972, 1976, 1980, and 1984 Summer Olympics are counted as the IWF World Championships of that corresponding year. Till 1990, the men’s and women’s edition of the championship was organized in separate venues in separate dates each year. But the federation started the mixed events since 1991. Check out the detailed statistics of the last ten editions of the IWF World Championships:

IWF World Championships All-time Medal Table

China and the Soviet Union are the two main dominant forces at the IWF World Championships each year. But sadly, both of the countries were not able to participate in the last edition of the championship as they faced ban after tested positive of using banned substances. Thailand, on the other hand, has competed last year in their full glory and has achieved 15 medals in total. Here are the top 10 nations having most number of medals in the IWF World Championships all-time table:

Multiple medalists in IWF World Championships

Legendary Soviet weightlifter Vasily Ivanovich Alekseyev has won the most number of medals at the IWF World Championships. Besides, he set 81 soviet records including 80 new world records in weightlifting during his heydays. Here are the top 10 multiple medalists of the World Weightlifting Championships:

IWF World Championships 2018 Conclusion

This year, the weightlifters will compete in the state-of-the-art venues in Ashgabat which was originally constructed for the Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games (AIMAG). The IWF has also provided financial contribution to its Continental Federations to boost the development of the weightlifting sport. So it is now expected that the IWF World Championships 2018 will deliver a great set of performances in the events. Besides, the fans are also now expecting the rise of some great new weightlifters.