[REPORT]


THE STATE OF USA WEIGHTLIFTING JULY 2013


– As Reported at the USA Weightlifting Annual Meeting in Cincinnati, Ohio By: Arthur Drechsler, Board of Director, Chairman


Over the past several years, the USA Weightlifting Staff and Members have been working hard to improve our sport. Here is a summary of what has been ac- complished and what we plan to work on in the coming months and years.


FOR THE ATHLETES We implemented a USA Weightlifting direct athlete support program tied to five percent of the USA Weightlifting’s annual revenues. It began with a pool of up to 10 athletes, a cap which will be raised to 15 shortly. This is the first such program funded by the USA Weightlift- ing and we hope to enhance it over time, especially as we move closer to the 2016 Olympic Games.


An objective, stable and age sensitive ath- lete classification system was implement- ed, tied to an athlete’s proximity to medal winning performances for his/her age group (senior, junior and youth). The num- ber and size of international teams fielded has increased and funding of the athletes is linked to an athlete’s classification.


Athlete selection procedures have been refined and now include rights to select the weights in certain international com- petitions. We have worked to assure that we don’t use an Olympic or similar quali- fication event as a final selection compe- tition, as has occurred in the past. And if an athlete is asked to take an attempt for team scoring purposes at an interna- tional qualification event, and potential for a bonus is adversely affected, we will compensate the athlete.


National event scheduling has been re- vised so that our top (A session) athletes lift at more opportune times. Further improvements in national event sched- uling are planned for 2014 to make for less unwieldy B sessions and right-sized A sessions.


2 >> WEIGHTLIFTING.TEAMUSA.ORG


FOR THE COACHES All of our coaches for the 2012 Olym- pic Team were the Olympians’ personal coaches. Coach selection for interna- tional teams is based on the number and level of the athletes a coach has on a team, subject to some simple experience requirements. Coaching classification is now based on verified athlete develop- ment, recognizing existing coaches who had been overlooked and opening the door for a new generation of coaches who are developing high-level athletes.


We are encouraging coaches to focus on the development of technique in their athletes, with such programs as the tech- nique awards at National Youth Champi- onships and a newly created National Event Coach level tied to an athlete’s technique, as well as overall lifting ability.


Our newly-revised first level coaching course will be available online (practical and written exams will still need to be taken live) and focuses on more prac- tice coaching versus lectures. Reduced course fees will be available to those who are already serving the sport. Coaching meetings at Olympic Training Center were held last summer and this summer.


FOR THE OVERALL


ORGANIZATION We adopted code of ethics for all members and all clubs will need at least one background checked club or high level coach in the future. Tem- porary Local Weightlifting Committee (LWC) rules have been enacted as we evaluate our LWC structure.


We have established “exposure draft” policy for major decisions like gover- nance and selection, so that before we make major changes the membership has an opportunity to comment on what is being proposed.


Our staff has been focused on continu- ing to improve our cooperation with United States Olympic Committee, In- ternational Weightlifting Federation and Pan American Sport Organizations. We were recently successful in influencing the International Weightlifting Federa- tion to toughen its penalties for doping positives and hosting the Pan American Under-15 competition.


We are much stronger financially, which has enabled us to better support our programs, but also to strengthen the USA Weightlifting Foundation, which suffered severe losses in 2007 and 2008.


Day memberships are back and we are making available single lift competi- tions to enable current non-members to access USA Weightlifting sanctioned competitions (e.g., through power clean competitions). Through a program of camps and training specials we are ex- posing more athletes and coaches to our Olympic Training Center coach, Zyg- munt Smalcerz. And our presence on so- cial media and web casting have made major advances in recent months.


WHAT WE PLAN TO DO


In addition to advancing the aforemen- tioned initiatives, we plan to revise our advanced coaching courses and offer non-certification separate seminars on how to snatch, clean and jerk. We will be focusing more on youth development, in particular in schools and colleges. And we’ll be working to improve the quality of our national events, web-site, social media presence and web-broadcasts.


We live in an exciting time for our sport with ever-growing recognition of values and transformative powers, and we plan to leverage these trends to produce a new generation of med- al winners for the USA.


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