On Sunday, it was announced that the World Weightlifting Championships will be held in Moscow in 2030. According to the AFP news agency, weightlifting is the first Olympic sport to award Russia a world championship since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
“I am shocked,” said Helene Johage, chairwoman of the Swedish Weightlifting Association, to TT.
The Swedish Olympic Committee (SOK) is also reacting strongly to the news.
“I am in the minority”
“There is still an ongoing war of aggression against Ukraine. It is very, very unfortunate that the International Weightlifting Federation has chosen to hold the World Championships in Russia,” says Fredrik Joulamo.
At the same time, Joulamo notes that Sweden’s stance is not shared by everyone around the world.
“We who think that Russia and Belarus should still be kept out, we are in the minority in our assessment. There are a great many countries that do not see this conflict in the same way that we do. They see it as a war among many others,” he says.
According to Joulamo, there are many question marks about how the championship was awarded.
“Not SOK’s business”
“We were not prepared for the decision. There are an awful lot of question marks that need to be cleared up and discussed. I think the weightlifting world needs to have its say first,” he says.
Swedish weightlifter Joen Vikingsson Sjöblom, who is part of SOK’s top and talent program, is in the running for the 2030 World Championships. But proposing a boycott is out of the question, according to Joulamo.
“No, we certainly will not call for a boycott. We will be at Joen’s service. We will support him in every way we can. It is not SOK’s business to call for a boycott,” says Joulamo.
This summer, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced that Russian and Belarusian athletes would be allowed to participate in the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics regardless of their political stance.
