International Weightlifting Federation

Weightlifting was part of the programme of the first Olympic Games of the modern age, at Athinai 1896, with two men’s events. By then, Britain’s Levy Lawrence Edward had already gained the first “Amateur Champion Weightlifter of the World” title back in 1891, in London, Great Britain.

The predecessor of the IWF, the Amateur-Athleten-Weltunion, was founded on 10 June 1905, in Duisburg, Germany, with responsibility for weightlifting and wrestling. The Internationaler Weltverband für Schwerathletik would then be established on 15 July 1912, during the Stockholm Olympics. Also a multi-sport federation, it would be rebranded to Internationaler Amateur-Weltverband für Schwerathletik from 1913 to 1920.

Dedicated exclusively to weightlifting, the Fédération Internationale Haltérophile (FIH) was established on 23 August 1920. The organization would also be known as Fédération Internationale Haltérophile et Culturiste (FIHC) from 1950-1969, and as Fédération Haltérophile International (FHI) from 1969-1972. The federation would finally be rebranded to its current name, International Weightlifting Federation (IWF), during an Executive Board Meeting on 6 September 1972.

The first Women World Championships were staged in Daytona Beach, Florida, United States, in 1987. The début for women weightlifters at the Olympics would only come at Sydney 2000.

Weightlifting has also been featured at the Youth Summer Olympics since the competition’s inception, at Singapore 2010, with events for boys and girls.

As of January 2026, the federation enlists 193 affiliated National Federations. The IWF’s headquarters is located in Lausanne, Switzerland, and its current president is Iraq’s Mohammed Jalood Al-Shammari.