2008 IPF Congress Proposals

The agenda for the 2008 IPF Congress contains 12 proposed changes to the Constitution, 12 proposed changes to the By-Laws, 7 proposed changes to the Technical Rules, and the proposed ratification of the 2009 Anti-Doping Rules. The Constitution, By-Laws, and Technical Rules can only be changed by a 2/3 majority vote at the Congress meeting.

The first proposal on the agenda is the ratification of the 2009 Anti-Doping Rules. The rules are meant to bring the IPF inline with the 2009 WADA code.

Proposal 6 to the Constitution puts the power to negotiate and sign contracts with equipment manufacturers in the hands of the executive. The reason cited is to guarantee stability to member nations, lifters, and manufacturers.

Proposal 9 to the Constitution attempts to add former Anti-Doping Rule 10.11 to the Constitution as Rule 14.10.6.

By-Law proposal 6 proposes raising IPF fees. "The participating national federations shall pay a drug test fee of EUR 50 for each lifter entered and declared at the Technical Meeting prior to the championships. If a national federation is not represented at the Technical Meeting, then a fee is required for all lifters nominated and entered on the final entry form."

In addition, participation fees would be raised from 15EUR to 30EUR per lifter for each lifter entered and taking part in any World Championships. The amount paid to the promoter would be changed from 50% to 10EUR.

The reason cited for the proposal is to finance liability and indemnity insurance.

The Athlete's Commission proposes a number of changes to the Technical Rules. They include reducing the time limit to change one's openers in the bench press and deadlift to three minutes; cleaning the bar between every deadlift or at least when requested by the lifter or the lifter's coach; and keeping the same judges for all groups if a category consists of more than one group and only changing judges between lifts, so that all lifters have the same referees for the same lift.

Finally, the Athlete's Commission proposes not only dropping a lifter's score from their team total if they test positive, but also not allowing the team to replace it with the next highest individual score, as happens currently. The reasoning is that it will put more pressure on countries to ensure they field clean teams.

The Czech federation has proposed changing the minimum weight which is required to break a world or international record.

They have also proposed eliminating Therapeutic Use Exemptions (TUE's) for lifters who are not able to lock their arms out on the bench press. The reasoning is that such lifters should be competing with disabled lifters, "this is not discrimination of the disabled, on the contrary the healthy lifters are discriminated now. The rule as it is creates unnecessary confusion and is contradictory to the strain after simplification of the rules. The public may be also confused when lifts of those who produced a certificate are judged as good although they look worse that lifts of athletes without any anatomical problems. Another reason is frequent abuse of this rule – we can see lifters with certificate who have their arms fully extended at the beginning of the lift but then do extend them fully at the completion of the lift."