2024 has been a great year for weightlifting — there was a little event in Paris back in August called the Olympic Games, and before that, the IWF World Cup proved to be one of the most exhilarating competitions in recent memory.
- World Weightlifting Day, a celebration dedicated to honoring the athletes who compete in the sport, occurs yearly on Oct. 16.
This year, weightlifting’s unofficial holiday was particularly historic. In China’s Dongguan City, a first-of-its-kind museum dedicated solely to Olympic lifting opened its doors to the public.
The World’s First Weightlifting Museum
President of the International Weightlifting Federation, Mohammed Jalood, visited the museum in Guangdong Province to inaugurate its opening and discuss the progress made by the sport in recent years.
- Last year on World Weightlifting Day, it was announced that weightlifting had been confirmed for the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles after years of bureaucratic corruption had unsteadied the sport’s reputation — and its status as a Games event.
“Today it’s a special day for the weightlifting family in the five continents, as we celebrate the inaugural World Weightlifting Day. This comes exactly one year after the historic decision … to confirm the inclusion of our sport in the programme of the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic Games,” said Jalood during the opening ceremonies and in an IWF presser dated Oct. 17, 2024.
The Shilong Weightlifting Museum may be the first site dedicated solely to weightlifting, but it’s far from the first public resource to showcase the achievements of strength athletes.
- The Stark Center for Physical Culture & Sports is an adjunct facility located on the University of Texas at Austin campus. The Center features weightlifting exhibits, but also highlights the storied history of competitive fitness sports across time.
- Famed equipment manufacturer York Barbell operates the Weightlifting Hall of Fame in York, Pennsylvania, where it catalogues the “diverse history of strength sports, their evolution from mythology to early Olympic Games and from the 19th and 20th-century amateur and professional strongmen to the current specialized sport of Olympic weightlifting, powerlifting, and bodybuilding.”
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After consecrating the museum, President Jalood made a point to visit some of the youth weightlifting schools in China to meet some of the country’s future stars. BarBend recently conducted an exclusive interview with one of Team China’s most veteran coaches — read more about what goes on in weightlifting’s winningest country here.
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Featured Image: International Weightlifting Federation
