On April 7, 2022, USA Weightlifting (USAW) announced that they submitted a bid to host the 2022 International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) World Championships on March 24, 2022.
If granted, the 2022 IWF World Championships would be held in Atlanta, GA, at the Georgia International Convention Center (GICC) with a start date “around Nov. 27 with the closing weekend taking place concurrently with the North American Open Finals,” per USAW’s press release.
Additionally in March, USAW submitted nomination forms to “potentially host the IWF Electoral Congress” scheduled for June 25-26, 2022 — the same week as the 2022 USAW Nationals in Las Vegas, NV.
Also in Las Vegas that week is the debut of the USAW Friendship Cup — an unsanctioned exhibition event that features mixed-gender, mixed-nation, two-person teams with rankings determined by the Sinclair coefficient (athletes’ totals are multiplied by a coefficient based on bodyweight to compare athletes across weight classes).
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The two most recent times the IWF World Championships were hosted in the U.S. were in 2015 when the competition was held in Houston, TX, and the 2017 IWF World Championships in Anaheim, CA. At the 2015 competition, all-time world record total holder Lasha Talakhadze of Georgia scored his first of five World Championship titles with a 454-kilogram (1,000.9-pound) total. China won the most medals at that contest — 19 gold, 13 silver, and one bronze for 33 medals total.
The 2017 IWF World Championships were initially scheduled to be held in Penang, Malaysia. However, Malaysia resigned as host for undisclosed reasons and the U.S. was subsequently awarded hosting duties.
A similar scenario could play out in 2022. The Chinese Weightlifting Association (CWA) “resigned as host on March 23 due to COVID-19 prevention and control rules that would require all athletes and officials to quarantine for 21 days.”
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One day after China’s resignation, the IWF allowed for a 15-day period for other IWF member federations to submit letters of intent to host the 2022 IWF World Championships. Regarding travel permissions to the U.S., USAW stated:
“USAW plans to work with the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee’s Government Relations division to make every reasonable effort to ensure visas are delivered for the IWF Congress and/or World Championships, a route that was effective for the International Table Tennis Federation’s Annual General Meeting in November 2021 in Houston.”
BarBend will update this article when more information about who the IWF selects as the host nation for the 2022 IWF World Championships is made available.
Note: BarBend is the Official Media Partner of USA Weightlifting. Unless otherwise specified on certain content, the two organizations maintain editorial independence.
Featured image: @usa_weightlifting on Instagram
