Whenever you ask anyone to name an Olympic event off of the top of their heads, weightlifting will be amongst the first that come to mind, alongside track and field athletics, gymnastics, swimming, cycling, archery and wrestling.

It is a sport that has provided some of the biggest and most memorable moments in over a century of events, and through the use of Olympic plates and competition lifts has shaped itself as an incredibly competitive event.

It appeared to be one that would endure for as long as the Olympics did. However, there was a serious risk as recently as four years ago that it would be dropped entirely, following a crisis and a reshaping that is still being felt today.

It had nothing to do with the sport itself or the incredible benefits training for it has had for millions of people, but a disease within its governing body which threatened to consume it from the inside out.

Lord Of The Lifters

As a sport, weightlifting is sanctioned by the International Weightlifting Federation, which has existed since 1905. They oversee competitions, ensure that events are fair and are tasked with rooting out cheaters, both in terms of competition form and out-of-competition doping.

From 2000 until 2020, the President of the IWF was Tamas Ajan, who previously was Secretary General of the IWF for 25 years before that, but in 2020 a bombshell expose was broadcast in Germany under the name Lord of the Lifters.

It was based on an independent report by Richard McLaren, a law professor who also oversaw the eponymous report into systematic doping by the Russian government.

In it, Mr Mclaren alleged that there was “corruption at the highest level” in the IWF, which included financial mismanagement, allegations of covered-up tests and allegations of vote buying on Mr Ajan’s part.

As part of what the report describes as a “culture of fear”, Mr Ajan’s totalitarian control of the sport included collecting all of the fines for violations of the IWF’s anti-doping policies, leaving $10m unaccounted for.

He also allegedly received cash that had been taken over the Albanian border to Budapest by the Albanian Weightlifting Federation, something that is illegal under Albanian law if undeclared.

During the investigation, whilst he had supposedly stepped aside, he threatened the interim president Ursula Papandrea, took part in business calls, blocked access to IWF accounts needed as part of the investigation and even oversaw a bank transfer whilst facing allegations of financial mismanagement.

He had also allegedly covered up as many as 41 positive doping tests as well as not processing 130 other ones. This included at least two athletes who had won medals at the IWF World Championships.

As well as this, he allegedly ruled via intimidation, with very few willing to testify against him for fear of reprisal, and he was accused of buying votes during several presidential elections as well as elections for other top positions in the IWF.

Mr Ajan finally resigned in 2020 and was banned for life from the IOC, but this was not the end of the IWF’s woes, and it threatened to take one of the Olympics’ oldest sports and thousands of clean competitive athletes with it.

The IOC cut the number of events and athletes eligible for the games from 260 in 2016 to 196 for the Tokyo Games in 2021, and down to just 120 in 2024. Worse still, they offered no guarantees that Weightlifting would return for the Los Angeles games in 2028 until 2023 when it was returned to the schedule.

This change in course was largely down to the election of Mohammed Hasan Jalood, who agreed to participate in the Court of Arbitration for Sport and to use the independent International Testing Agency to drug test athletes.

This appears to have been enough to satisfy the IOC and avoid the unthinkable situation of one of the Olympics’ most longstanding events being dropped, something which would not only bring a dark cloud over weightlifting but also the Olympics as a whole.

The IWF has appeared to stabilise both in terms of its oversight and its finances, with the financial black hole left by Mr Ajan as well as the loss of revenue caused by fewer events during the Olympics having the risk of plunging the sport into a death spiral.

Weightlifting is far more than the IWF, and it would not have stopped the millions of people who go to the gym and test themselves against the plates, but it might have stopped the next generation from being inspired to better themselves.