Street Weightlifting

Street weightlifting is a variant of the sport which takes the action into urban settings and city streets.

It has been suggested that the format could work well at the Youth Olympic Games.

In July 2023, the second edition of Swiss Street Weightlifting took place in the Olympic capital of Lausanne, with backing from the International Weightlifting Federation.

Weightlifters competed at the Quartier du Flon in the centre of the Swiss city.

Hundreds of fans watched teams of one man and one woman compete in the open air, with gold going to Team International who consisted of Sarah Davies of England and Dominik Certov of Austria.

A bench press exhibition was open to everyone, as well as a demonstration of street work outs to bring together athletes and fans. 

The Swiss Youth Championship was also held and a free weightlifting initiation was organised for children.

In March 2023, street weightlifting also took place in Bahrain under the watchful eye of the IWF - as part of the country's "Strength Week".

The inaugural IWF Street Weightlifting Championships took place in April 2022 in Lausanne.

A livestream of the event was available on the Olympic Channel, as well as the IWF's Facebook and YouTube pages.

It was also broadcast on Huya, the biggest streaming platform in China.

A large crowd gathered to see 14 athletes compete in seven teams - including hosts Switzerland, Austria, France, Germany and Italy.

The remaining two teams were "Team International" - made up of Britain and Colombia - and "Team Ambassador" - made up of Malta and Qatar.

As with every weightlifting competition, the snatch lifts came first but a round-robin system was used which saw every team attempt their first lifts in order before having the chance to modify the next weights.

Germany came out on top with 56.8 ROBI points, with Team Ambassador second on 53.1 and Italy third on 51.1.

After the clean and jerk, it was Team Ambassador who leap-frogged their way to the title as Meso Hassona and Yazmin Stevens achieved an overall total of 535 kilograms, enough for 891.9 ROBI points.

The Germans ended second on 810.9 and Italy hung on to third with 807.3.