The sport risks losing its Olympic status due to the leadership’s manipulation, the RWF has said
The International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) is going through a deep crisis caused by the corruption and manipulation of its former leadership, which it has failed to eradicate, the Russian Weightlifting Federation (RWF) has recently warned.
Various international sports bodies have taken no action to address the numerous suspicions raised against top IWF executives despite some of them being mentioned by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in a ruling last year, the RWF said, accusing the International Olympic Committee of covering up the alleged misdeeds.
The last time the issue entered the spotlight was in September 2023, after the CAS passed its judgment in the case of the RWF head, Maksim Agapitov. The Russian sports official, who is also the first vice president of the European Weightlifting Federation (EWF), had a dispute against Attila Adamfi, vice president of the IWF.
Agapitov’s case dates back to August 2021, when he accused Adamfi of being “implicated, or repeatedly mentioned in a negative context” in connection to a major IWF corruption scandal. At the time, the Russian official published an open letter criticizing the then-non-executive director and current CEO of British Weight Lifting (BWL), Matthew Curtain, for forming an alliance with Adamfi and thus “bringing weightlifting into disrepute.”
At the time, Agapitov also published a video titled ‘Say No to doping. Save Weightlifting’, in which he detailed the situation and presented his anti-doping agenda.
The dispute ended up with the EWF Ethics and Disciplinary Commission accusing Agapitov of abuse of office and slapping him with a $7,000 fine. The open letter also cost the Russian official his position as EWF interim president at the time.
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