What Was The First Women’s World Weightlifting Championship?

Weightlifting is for everyone, and by the 2020s, athletes, broadcasters and governing bodies alike have caught up to this reality and set up gyms, competitions and Olympic bumper plates for everyone from all walks of life.

The path towards a more open, inclusive weightlifting environment was not short and not easy, however. The International Weightlifting Federation only sanctioned women’s weightlifting competitions as late as 1983, over a century after the likes of Minerva, Vulcana and Charmion were born.

It would take another four years after this for the first official women’s world weightlifting championship to finally take place. Why did it take so long? Why did it happen? And how did it change weightlifting forever?

Why Did It Take So Long For There To Be A Women’s Weightlifting World Championship?

For as long as there have been famous strongmen, there have been famous strongwomen. In 1903, Katie Brumbach defeated one of weightlifting’s most important pioneers and named herself Sandwina as both a tribute and a trophy.

However, it would take nearly a century between the first Men’s World Weightlifting Championship in 1891 until the first Women’s World Weightlifting Championship, and well over a century for the Olympic Games to have women’s weightlifting categories.

The Leeds University Faculty of Biological Sciences blames this on gendered societal norms; weightlifting up until the late 1970s and 1980s was less about physical development than it should have been, and this had a chilling effect on many prospective lifters.

It took a generation of early female bodybuilders, which predates women’s weightlifting by roughly a decade, to carve out a space for strength training that has only grown since.

Following the first women’s bodybuilding championship in Canton, Ohio in 1977, the first 

women’s powerlifting world championship took place in 1980, as did the first Ms Olympia.

The International Weightlifting Federation’s Executive Board voted unanimously to establish women’s weight categories in 1983, although events remained relatively localised until its first international championships in 1986 in Budapest.

What Happened At The 1987 Women’s World Weightlifting Championships?

The IWF agreed to host two Weightlifting World Championships in 1987; the men’s championships took place in Ostrava, Czechoslovakia (now Czechia) whilst the women competed in Daytona Beach, Florida.

It was a fitting setting, given that so much of bodybuilding and weightlifting culture had developed in Daytona Beach. 

It was hosted by the American Weightlifting Federation (Now USA Weightlifting), who had been running weightlifting competitions since 1981 and were considered to be overwhelming favourites to win.

That changed quickly when the competition began, and China dominated eight of the nine weight classes. Karyn Marshall, a financial analyst and pioneer of modern women’s weightlifting in the United States, claimed the other medal in the 82.5kg category.

Compared to the huge profile women’s weightlifting gets today and has had since the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, the first World Championships were relatively low-key. 

However, this would quickly change.

How Did Women’s Weightlifting Change After The 1987 World Championships?

There was a remarkably rapid change in the world of women’s weightlifting following the 1987 event, although it is unclear whether it was a direct consequence of the inaugural contest or whether it was catching the updraft of weightlifting as one of the most critical parts of a workout.

Regular Women’s Weightlifting Meets

The following year, Jakarta in Indonesia hosted the World Championships whilst the men’s event took place during the Seoul Olympics, and for the next two years, the IWF would hold separate men’s and women’s weightlifting events in different venues around the world.

This would change in 1991, when both the men’s and women’s World Championships would emanate from Donaueschingen for the first time ever.

This was a huge accomplishment, but it also highlighted the last barrier that female weightlifters would need to smash: taking part in the Olympic Games.

The IWF treated the Olympics as an edition of the World Championships, but this led to logistical issues in 1992 and 1996.

The men’s weightlifting championships took place in Barcelona and Atlanta, respectively, as part of the Olympic Games, so separate events took place in Varna, Bulgaria and Warsaw, Poland, respectively.

Greater Competition 

When the first US national women’s weightlifting event took place in 1981, a single competitor could lift more than her bodyweight, and the combined record in 1987 was 220kg. 

Within a decade, the record had jumped by 50kg, and would leap forward again in 200 when the 300kg threshold was beaten. As of the weight class realignment in 2025, the combined world record stands at 335kg.

The greater publicity, prestige and spotlight on weightlifting more broadly and women’s weightlifting in particular led not only to a greater quantity of competitors, which doubled from 100 in 1987 to 231 in 1999.

As of 2026, the peak number of competitors was 354 for the 2023 World Championships in Riyadh, as women’s weightlifting reaped the rewards of a boom that was two decades in the making.

 

First Women’s Weightlifting Olympics

Whilst the groundwork for women’s weightlifting was initially laid by pioneers such as Britain’s first women’s weightlifting champion Ivy Russell in the 1930s and Abbye Stockton in the 1940s, it would take decades for the Olympic Games to feature women’s weightlifting.

By the 1990s, when women’s weightlifting had become a major event on the sporting calendar, the International Olympic Committee finally added seven women’s weight classes to be competed at the 2000 Games in Sydney, Australia.

The success of Sydney galvanised the women’s weightlifting scene significantly, establishing a highly popular spectator sport that has not only benefitted countries with a strong legacy of weightlifting success, such as China, Russia and the United States, but also Turkiye, Ukraine and the United Kingdom.

Representation is vital in all walks of life, and the best way to encourage people to pick up a barbell and test themselves against their weights is to showcase the best of the best competing on the grandest stage.

The Olympics have historically been very important for this, as it is the biggest sporting showcase in the world and shines a spotlight on sports that otherwise receive less coverage.

Women’s weightlifting is one of its crowning achievements, and it was only made possible thanks to 100 lifters in 1987.