Yesterday, USA Weightlifting made a big announcement in regards to the Nike American Open Series 3 competition and weightlifting competitions after it moving forward. The Nike American Open Series 3 competition is set to take place September 13-16th in Las Vegas, Nevada, and USA Weightlifting has stated that this competition will use the International Weightlifting Federation’s (IWF) new weight classes.
The restructured weight classes have been on the minds of many weightlifting athletes and coaches for the last year, and the IWF plans to, or is expected to finalize the classes by the end of summer. USA Weightlifting has stated that registration for the American Open Series 3 event won’t open until these classes are final.
In addition to adopting the new weight classes, USA Weightlifting has prepared to commemorate all of the American records that stand in retired weight classes. Also, USA Weightlifting plans to utilize data interpretation to create new American Record standards for newly formatted weight classes. This data interpretation to create standards was similar to what they did in November 2016 when the 90kg women’s weight class was introduced.
These newly formatted weight classes (seven for men & seven for women) will be contested at all International competitions moving forward once they’re announced, as they’re the weight classes that will be adopted for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. USA Weightlifting also announced that they’d update their stipend and selection process accordingly.
This new formation of weight classes was in response to the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) announcement from June 2017. In this announcement, the IOC stated they’d be creating gender equality by dropping a men’s weight class for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. In addition, they plan to decrease the 2020 Tokyo Olympics total weightlifting athlete participation to 196 (compared to 260 athletes in Rio). All of these changes were in response to the IOC’s view of weightlifting’s past issues with anti-doping.
Feature image from @usa_weightlifting Instagram page.
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