As of January 1st 2017 Women’s Weightlifting will have another body-weight class.
Women will have a total of 8 body-weight categories to equal the men’s number of body-weight classes.
This will see a 90kg and 90kg+ replacing the 75kg+ body-weight category for Senior & Junior athletes. And a 75kg and 75kg+ replacing the 69kg+ body-weight class for Youth athletes.
The body-weight divisions for Senior & Junior women will be: 48kg, 53kg, 58kg, 63kg, 69kg, 75kg, 90kg, 90kg+.
The body-weight divisions for Youth women will be: 44kg, 48kg, 53kg, 58kg, 63kg, 69kg, 75kg+.
A verdict was reached late last week in Beijing, China, after an executive board meeting was held by the IWF (International Weightlifting Federation) to bring more equality into the sport. This is a significant moment in Weightlifting as the last time there was a body-weight change was back in 1998.
Interesting Fact About Women’s Weightlifting:
Women were late entrants to Weightlifting. It wasn’t until 1983 that women’s Weightlifting was recognised and the first international competition took place in 1986. However it took another 14 years for women to appear at an Olympic Games, which was in Sydney 2000.
