Weightlifting Federation (IWF) announced that Moscow has been selected to host the 2030 World Weightlifting Championships.
The IWF confirmed the 2030 host city assignment alongside its selection of Ahmedabad, India, to host the preceding 2029 World Weightlifting Championships.
The decision breaks a nearly multi-year sports isolation block, making it the first time an international governing body of an Olympic sport has entrusted Russia with a world championship event since the onset of the war in Ukraine in February 2022.
It follows recent moves by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to ease restrictions on Russian and Belarusian athletes and adjust provisional suspensions.
Moscow has not hosted the competition since 1983.
While international federations retain individual authority on whether to award events or allow competitors back, the IWF decision provides Moscow with a major symbolic and organizational win as it works to claw its way back into the mainstream global sports calendar.
No world championships in an Olympic sport, summer or winter, have been held in Russia since the start of the war in Ukraine.
The 2025 World Aquatics Championships, initially awarded to the Russian city of Kazan, were instead moved to Singapore.
The Russian Weightlifting Federation said, “We are the first Olympic sports federation to succeed in bringing a top-level official competition back to the country in many years.”
Federation president Aleksandr Vinokurov thanked the IWF in a post on Telegram “for their trust”, with the championships also serving as a qualifying event for the 2032 Olympic Games in Brisbane, Australia.
“Russia has all the necessary experience and capabilities to host competitions of the highest level,” he said.
“Moscow has repeatedly staged major international sporting events and has modern infrastructure.”
In announcing its decision in July to provisionally lift Russia’s suspension, the IOC said that no decision had been taken on whether Russia could display their flag, colours and anthem at the Olympic Games.
The IOC said it would continue to “not organize IOC events in Russia or invite Russian government or state officials to its events”.
Some Russian athletes competed at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games and this year’s Winter Olympics in Milan as neutrals.
Ukraine filed an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) requesting that the IOC decision to lift its suspension of the Russian Olympic Committee be annulled.
The IOC’s move decision came after the International Paralympic Committee had already ended Russia’s exile from global sports events, with the country’s athletes allowed to compete under their national flag at the Winter Paralympics.
Five Ukrainian athletes are listed to compete in the 2026 IWF World Championships in Ningbo, China, which are scheduled to take place from 27 October to 8 November.
