More than four years after its invasion of Ukraine that left it banished from the sporting world, Russia was awarded its first global event with the 2030 weightlifting championships.
The International Weightlifting Federation announced the move on Sunday after its executive board also revealed plans for the next four editions of its world competitions between 2028 and 2030.
Moscow will be the site of the champions and the appointment comes just four months after the IWF allowed Russian athletes to resume competing in its events.
“All the bids we received were excellent and we are sure that the Championships in your respective countries will be a huge success,” IWF general secretary José Quiñones said. “It is also worth noting that three of these four countries will be organizing an IWF world event for the first time – Kosovo, Venezuela and India. This demonstrates our sport is growing worldwide and the staging of our competitions is highly desirable for many nations around the planet.”
Russia previously staged the world championships in 1983 at Izmailovo Sports Palace when it was still part of the Soviet Union. But the nation has not hosted another IWF competition in more than 40 years for several reasons, including the fall of the USSR in 1991, the revelation of state-sponsored doping programs and the Ukraine invasion in 2022.
The IWF banned Russia from its competitions weeks after the invasion, restricting the country’s weightlifters from international and continental events, suspending team officials and technical officials and ruling out the nation from hosting sanctioned activities.
“These exceptional measures were decided and issued in view of the extraordinary circumstances arising in Ukraine,” the IWF executive board said in 2022. “They constitute preventive measures aiming at preserving the integrity of sport, the relationships between our members and between all the participants. They are also aimed at protecting the safety of all participants, including in particular the participants from the two above mentioned countries.”
Belarus was also barred from IWF events since part of the invasion took place from within its borders.
After being one of the first governing bodies to sanction Russia, other organizations quickly followed, including the International Olympic Committee and World Athletics.
But in recent months, many of those same sporting agencies have offered a roadmap for Russia to return to international competition, with the IWF revealing in July that it would allow Russian and Belarusian athletes of all age groups to again be eligible for its events.
That month, the IOC provisionally lifted its ban on the Russian Olympic Committee, with president Kirsty Coventry signaling that the nation’s path to the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles would get clearer while individual sports federations would be responsible for their own rules in dealing with Russia.
World Gymnastics, World Aquatics, World Taekwondo and other organizations also eased restrictions, while World Athletics has upheld its ban, stating in July that its decision would remain to “protect the integrity and fairness of our competitions, with no tangible movement towards peace negotiations having materialized.”
Russia fired back by pursuing a pair of legal actions with the Court of Arbitration for Sport and accusing World Athletics president Sebastian Coe of a “personal agenda.”
Sunday’s announcement is a sign Russia could host other global events even as its conflict with Ukraine persists.
“Our goal is to organize the World Championships at a high level and provide the best conditions for athletes, coaches, and all participants,” Alexander Vinokurov, president of the Russian Weightlifting Federation said. “I am confident that we will host a competition that will be a true celebration of weightlifting and a crucial step on the athletes’ path to the 2032 Olympics. Much work lies ahead, but today we have truly achieved a historic result.”
