More than 200 athletes aged 13 to 17-years-old are expected to compete at the event in Las Vegas, where eight days of competition is scheduled to begin on Friday (March 8).  

They will come from nearly 50 countries across all five continents, forming the core of weightlifting’s next generation.

"Education is a vital component of our anti-doping work at the IWF," IWF President Tamás Aján said.

"We understand that for it to be most effective, we should start early in the development of young weightlifters.

"The iLiftClean programme is one that we have developed with many knowledgeable partners, including USADA [United States Anti-Doping Agency] and WADA [World Anti-Doping Agency], and one that we are applying universally to make sure that the culture change we have already brought about in weightlifting is permanent and universal."

For the completion of the iLiftClean e-learning programme, 80 per cent or higher need to have passed the final three-minute test. 

All participating athletes may complete the test before or during the Youth World Championships.

Online course materials include three videos about whereabouts obligations of athletes, the doping control process and the rules related to Therapeutic Use Exemptions for medicines.

They are already available in English, Russian, Spanish and Arabic, but, as a long-term goal, the IWF aims to include further language options for the e-learning platform.

For this reason, the Japanese language version of the material has now also been rolled out, with a view to ensuring host country weightlifters are well informed prior to the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

Furthermore, the IWF is working closely with the Japan Anti-Doping Agency (JADA) on its anti-doping education materials.

JADA is considered as a potential National Anti-Doping Organisation partner because of the upcoming Olympics.

Further iLiftClean activities at the Youth World Championships will build on those already welcomed at the Buenos Aires 2018 Youth Olympic Games.

These are set to include anti-doping seminars and an outreach booth where the young athletes, their support personnel and parents will all have the chance to win prizes by testing their knowledge in a playful way with an anti-doping quiz available in 14 languages.

"The field for the Youth World Championships includes six athletes with podium placings from the Buenos Aires 2018 Youth Olympic Games and we expect to see many of the young athletes in Las Vegas go on to long and successful careers at the top of our sport," Aján said.

"It is our sincere hope that with a position among the best-educated athletes in the world when it comes to anti-doping, they will go on to share their knowledge with their peers and in turn influence the generations to follow."

IWF director general Attila Adamfi added: "To be effective in promoting clean sport, the global anti-doping model needs effective education to help ensure that athletes make informed choices at every step of their career.

"From learning about checking supplements and medications to how to provide whereabouts information, clean athletes can easily and conveniently make learning a priority within their training thanks to programmes like iLiftClean."

Last month, Adamfi said the recent spate of doping violations in weightlifting and the method of their detection sends a clear message to everyone in the sport that cheats will be caught.

The International Olympic Committee has effectively put weightlifting’s place on the Olympic schedule on hold beyond Tokyo 2020, because of its doping problems.

But it is supportive of the Tokyo 2020 qualifying programme, and of the IWF’s partnership with the Independent Testing Agency that started on January 1 this year.