Two technical delegates from the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) visited us at the London 2012 Organising Committee for the first time last week. As the Sports Manager for Weightlifting for the Games, I’m delighted to say they were very impressed with what they saw!

The delegates - Sam Coffa, IWF Vice President and Attila Ádámfi, IWF Competition Director - had a series of meetings about the competition venue, the test event, sports equipment, position of the field of play, anti-doping, timing, scoring and results, sports specific volunteers and to review the Memorandum of Understanding. They also visited the Olympic Park.

Sam described ExCeL, where Weightlifting will happen, as “magnificent”. He told me he thought it was great to be part of the second biggest cluster of Olympic and Paralympic events (after the Olympic Park). He was also glad to see everything so close such as the Technical Officials hotel only being 500 metres from the venue. ExCeL will certainly be a hub of excitement at Games time.

As Attila pointed out, having a big open space within which to work is fantastic also, as it means there are no limitations on what we can plan.

Through the delivery of sports presentation, ExCeL will enable us to host the Olympic Weightlifting competition in an innovative way. Weightlifting is a sport that is a confined activity within the 4m x 4 metre competition platform which means the action is always exciting and easy to understand. Once you include the music, the lighting, and the audience – you really have a theatre-like environment.

Sam also pointed out that the warm-up area is a key part of all the action as well, where spectators can watch the coaches cajoling the athletes, providing lots of theatre, which is why the cameras are allowed in.  

Weightlifting will have 15 gold medals in 2012, and 260 athletes. It is one of the oldest and most basic forms of physical competition and was part of the Olympic Games back in 1896 so it has a long and proud history. Sam calls it the “original ‘extreme’ sport”. It’s certainly going to be extremely entertaining for spectators come 2012.