Yesterday the International Weightlifting Federation announced the creation of the Sport Program Commission. The commission, made up of some legendary weightlifters, including Nicu Vlad, is mainly tasked with "the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games Weightlifting program, including the Olympic Qualification System, the competition format, event field size and the men's bodyweight categories to be contested."

The most exciting part of this new commission is that it will also look at possible ways to "innovate" the sport by checking out opportunities for new events, disciplines, and formats for competition. 

The current disciplines in weightlifting are the snatch and clean and jerk, but up until 1972 the third discipline was clean and press.


It's not clear what new disciplines, formats, or events the Commission will be researching, but with the IOC breathing down the IWF's neck, the IWF needs to be considering every possible option to keep the sport growing.

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