September 14, 2021 • 26 mins
Moira Lassen is the first woman to be elected to the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) and is also Chair of its Women’s Commission. A recent decision by the IWF to add a weight category thus ensuring female weightlifters achieve gender parity was the result of her work to continually develop the sport for women. Moira explains where the sport is now and how women are making their mark for athletes today and future generations in all roles.
Host: Chris Stafford
For more information, links and resources plus conversations from the world of women’s sport including articles, blogs, videos and podcasts visit wispsports.com. WiSP Sports is the World’s First and Only Podcast Network for Women’s Sport with more than 60 hosts, 1300+ episodes across 50 shows and over 7 million downloads. WiSP Sports is on all major podcast players. Follow WiSP Sports on social media @WiSPsports. Contact us at info@wispsports.com.
Host: Chris Stafford
For more information, links and resources plus conversations from the world of women’s sport including articles, blogs, videos and podcasts visit wispsports.com. WiSP Sports is the World’s First and Only Podcast Network for Women’s Sport with more than 60 hosts, 1300+ episodes across 50 shows and over 7 million downloads. WiSP Sports is on all major podcast players. Follow WiSP Sports on social media @WiSPsports. Contact us at info@wispsports.com.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:10):
Hello, and welcome to the program. I'm Chris Stafford. On this episode
of our Sport in Focus podcast,we take a closer look at weightlifting.
Canadian Mora Lasson was the first womanto ever be elected to the International Weightlifting
Federation Executive Board and she's also chairof their Women's Commission. She spearheaded a
(00:31):
move to ensure gender parity for womenin the sport, said that they now
have equal categories with the men.Mora has played many roles in the sports,
serving on several committees, and shebegan officiating internationally in two thousand and
three. She's currently in Australia preparingfor the come Games in a couple of
year's time. Mora, welcome tothe program. Thank you thanks for having
(00:54):
me on. Well, I said, already in Australia. You are Canadian,
so you better explain why you're inthe Gold Coast there in Australia Queensland
preparing for the Commonwealth Games. Whatyour role is there right, Well,
I just came to Australia in Julyand I work at the Gold Coast twenty
eighteen Commonwealth Games. I'm in theposition of Executive Operations lead in the venue
(01:22):
operations in sport departments. So I'mkind of the right hand person to the
general manager. And I've just comeoff a year stint in Samoa where I
was the International Games Advisor and forthe Commonwealth Youth Games, and then a
couple of years over in the UK. And yeah, so I haven't been
(01:46):
I am Canadian, but I haven'tbeen living there for a couple of years
at least one quad. Okay,well, this is the reason why why
you have such a strong background insports and in the governing governance of sport,
which is what we want to hearabout more because we don't hear enough
of women taking lead roles in thegovernance of sports. But you have won
(02:06):
in very much in a male dominatedsport of weightlifting. And explain exactly what
your roles are there. Now.I know that you were elected, but
three years ago, wasn't it.So you've been on the executive committee now
for executive board for a little while. But why did you get into sports
governance in the first place, andspecifically weightlifting? Right? Well, I
(02:27):
actually got into weightlifting because of mydaughter. My daughter started. My daughter's
named Jeanie Lasson, and she startedweightlifting when she was about thirteen and we
lived in the north of Canada,so in white Horse, Yukon, which
is up by Alaska. And shewas really, really good, and the
(02:50):
timing was excellent because she qualified forabout the Canada Games when the sport was
in the Canada Games and the JuniorWorld for women, the very first ones.
So she qualified. And because Iwas willing to do the work,
she was willing to lift the weights. I was willing to lift all the
paper. So I got involved withthe sports from a governance perspective, as
(03:16):
you say in an admin perspective,Well, you certainly between you've been doing
the heavy lifting, haven't you,And I can see the reason why you
would choose the sport that your daughter'sinvolved with. But did you have a
sporting background prior to this? Wereyou an active athlete yourself? Mara sure.
I grew up in Ontario, insouthern Ontario, and everything was available
(03:38):
to us, funnily enough, notweightlifting at the time, just because of
it just wasn't drowned for women.So yeah, so we we did everything,
you know, mostly track and field. Yeah, so it was just
a natural progression. My daughter's extremelyathletic and she was never an organized sports
(03:59):
before were going to school like outsideextracurricular because we just couldn't afford for her
to be in any organized sport.But once she got involved in a school
club, then that's where it tookoff. Well, I think you've really
grasped the sport with both hands interms of getting involved in the trenches.
Really, I bitness, what's thirteenyears or so that you've been internationally officiating
(04:25):
for the sport. You've been onthe Scientific and Research Committee, the technical
committee, by laws and technical Imean really all that sort of heavy lifting,
backstage stuff that nobody really hears aboutuntil you come up with some definitive
decisions which affect the sport and particularlyfor women here and one that happened very
recently has meant gender parity in thesport in a very male dominated sport.
(04:46):
So how did that come about?Has that been on the boiler for a
little while before it emerged recently?Lura? Well, yeah, so we've
always wondered why there was one lessbodyweight cate glory for women, and this
has been the case even before wegot into the Olympics. It was always
there was always one less and whoknows why. So we just kept asking
(05:10):
the question. Then other people startedasking the question, and as I was
chair of the Women's Commission, wegot a small working group together of a
former world champion, Carolina Lundall anda former national team member from Great Britain
and now an international technical official HeatherAllison, and myself. We got together
(05:34):
and did a small scale survey andpresented a business case to the Executive Board
and to the IWF Secretariat and thatwas the catalyst of the change. So
it's quite exciting that we were ableto sort of it was the tipping point.
You know, everyone just kept ontalking about it for a while,
(05:56):
but nothing, no action up frontaction was taken place. So we thought,
well we'll put it out there andsee what happens. It took took
some women then, didn't it toaffect that of change as absolutely, And
we're very proud of it um.But we're also very proud and and and
(06:18):
please that the the male dominated sportand all the guys that are in power
saw the saw the realization for it. And you know with IOC Agenda twenty
twenty UM that was also like apiece of the puzzle that we could leverage
for gender equality as well as theUnited Nations Sustainable Development Goals twenty thirty.
(06:43):
We referenced that as well, andI always do because it's better to have
bigger players at the table, youknow, so to please I guess,
well, let's talk about just forthe sake of explaining to a wider audience
here, the actual cat gris thatthere are full weight lifting for women,
and that they're all in the OlympicGames. So are they that the IWF
(07:05):
approve. That's that's correct, that'scorrect. Um so, yeah, so
we have before this new decision,we had seven weight categories. We had
forty three or sorry, forty eight, fifty three, fifty eight, sixty
three, sixty nine, seventy fiveand seventy five plus. Now we're talking
(07:29):
kilograms. Um, so the heaviestweight category was seventy five plus. Uh,
that's not very heavy at all.And if you get an athlete who
is say five eight, five nineand then two and then a muscle a
musclely person as well, I mean, it's easy to be well over seventy
(07:51):
five kilos. And in fact,we noticed with the numbers that they were
closer to the average was closer toninety ninety to ninety three kilos, so
there was a disadvantage to the womenin the seventy five plus. So yeah,
that's why we we said, well, we removed seventy five plus,
(08:13):
insert ninety and then I have aninety plus. Okay, so there's something
for everyone. Then at all ofthe categories for women, now it's the
doors open. That's right, that'sright. And at first, when the
Women's Commission did it, we wethought, you know, the guys,
I'll never take ninety because it's justlarger. And we thought, oh,
(08:37):
they'll never go court, and wewant to get this pass. So we
were actually a bit more uh notso liberal with the with the with the
bodyweight category. So we said,okay, the logic is that there's on
average about nine point five kilos differencebetween all of the bodyweight categories that currently
(08:58):
existed, so we thought, okay, we'll just make it a ten kilo
jump, so at least, um, you know, we can we can
present that and go from there.And and I think, you know,
at first we felt like we haddone a disservice, but at the same
time, the objective was to getthe extra bodyweight category full stop, and
(09:20):
it was the aftermath of what thatcategory was was the debatable part. But
we had to get the category infirst, and that's what we did in
June at a executive board meeting.So you feel, I'm sure as part
of the Women's Commission there and forthe sport globally, really you have scored
a goal here more with this landmarkdecision. Oh absolutely, it's it's we
(09:46):
have full gender parody when it comesto the field of play for bodyweight categories.
It's fantastic. Um, we don'tquite have an IOC or like an
Olympic medal attached to this new bodyweightcategor that's the next step in the process.
Um, So any influencers out there, Um, you were looking for
(10:09):
another medal? Basically we'll be stronglypresenting that to the IOC. All right,
well, I hope the people thatmatter listening to this podcast and more.
That was going to be my question. Presumably this kicks off within the
sport internationally fairly soon, does it? But it but it's still got a
ways to go and more decision makingto before it makes it. Would it
(10:31):
in fact make it in time forthe Tokyo Olympics in twenty twenty, Yeah,
So within the sport. It becomeseffective January first, twenty seventeen,
and we already have the Commonwealth Gamestwenty eighteen, which is the next Calm
Games. They are have approved tohave this and they were a catalyst in
(10:52):
this as well, because we hadyou know, the Calm of Games Federation
out of London saying yes, we'daccept another bodyweight category. We had the
Organizing Committee doing the same thing um. And then also the Pan American Games
in Lima in h twenty nineteen alsosaid that they would accept the the extra
(11:15):
bodyweight category. So we had alot of players. They're also at the
weightlifting table, so this all helps. We had a lot of players saying
yes, it would it would fit, and it doesn't take much to add
this extra session, and the costsare kind of irrelevant. It's only really
one bodyweight category or one medal um. So all of these are you know,
(11:39):
pieces of the puzzle and you knowsteps up to the IOC to say,
uh, listen, these are allthese things have happened. Um,
So twenty twenty, Tokyo's ready,they know, because we do have some
strong Tokyo representation in our sport.In fact, the president of the Japanese
(12:01):
Weightlifting Federation is the newly elected governorof Tokyo. If you can imagine she's
she's quite an influential, influential womanwith a lot of supporters behind her,
like a couple of million. Soshe's with our sport, which is really
really impressive. And yeah, sowe're hoping that the IOC uh, you
(12:22):
know, we're using their words backto them about Agenda twenty twenty, so
we hope that they'll make the rightdecision. How about the sports own World
Championships. When is that on thecalendar? Mara our World Championships, so
it'll be it's effective right away inJanuary, So the Youth Worlds will have
an eighth bodyweight category for women inApril, the Junior Worlds in the following
(12:48):
in June, and then the WorldChampionships in the fall of twenty seventeen.
Okay, well it sounds like progress. You know. I want to just
remind everybody that back in twenty thirtywhen you were elected to the IWF Executive
Board, you made that point therethat you were looking forward to continually developing
(13:09):
the sport globally and engaging more women, more girls to participate, not just
as athletes, but also coaching andofficiating and hopefully in the governance of the
sport. Clearly that is happening,but give us a sense of perspective as
to how you feel the sport isgrown in those different categories, if you
will, great, well we're asa sport, we're doing very well with
(13:33):
female athletes. We've also changed ourrules in the last in the last Quad
in twenty eleven, allowing people towear like full singlets sorry it's full UNI
tards, so they can cover theirlegs and arms. This allows of course
(13:56):
Muslim women from all over the worldto compete, so it opens up another
catchment for us. UM. Soyeah, so our athlete base is doing
very well. We've had youth Worldsthat have had more female athletes at it
than male athletes, which is quiteexciting, youth being the ages of thirteen
to seventeen UM. But we dofalter with coaches, technical officials and elected
(14:22):
officials decision makers. M Yes,you mentioned there. The clothing that's been
allowed now for for the sport enablesMuslim women to participate. Does that include
headwear as well? Mora, Yes, And interestingly we've never had any restriction
(14:46):
on headwear. We just had toclarify that there was that it was acceptable.
We never had anything that you couldn'twear anything on your head um,
So yes, we just made itclear that any thing was you could wear
anything on your head as long asit didn't touch the bar when you were
lifting the way. Okay, okay, understood. Now you mentioned athletes and
(15:09):
coaches. Now what about the rolesof officials then, and also the governance
of the sport. Have you seenan increase in women's participation in those two
areas? This is the governance partis still an extreme struggle because it's of
course power positions and people don't liketo give those up very easily. We've
(15:33):
had to mandate in the last quadrennialand constitution change, we mandated a female
board member position, so one ofthe executive board members member voting voting times
was only available for women candidates.So it wasn't an an additional person on
(15:54):
the board. It was just therewas this one slot was only for female
candidates, and that's how I gotin. Otherwise it would not happen organically.
They're the powers that be, andthose around the table are not going
to let relinquish their positions easily,and women are it's just a different game.
(16:18):
It's a difficult place to win,to win votes. So we've done
this. We've presented also another constitutionalchange this time around, and we were
waiting for approval at the in Malaysiain mid October for a female vice president
position. This will be the same. It's not an additional person to the
(16:40):
executive board. It's just a votingregime that's only for women candidates. So
this will enable two mandated females onthe executive board, which is you know,
three is the tipping point, sowe'll get there sooner or later,
but there'll be two. So yeah, I'm really excited about that because that's
(17:03):
a huge change because they basically thepeople that are making the decisions are potentially
not going to be there anymore,knowing that when they make this decision that
it could be them that's knocked outof the race. Yeah, this is
interestingly shifted. It sounds to meis if this isn't necessarily sexism playing out
as much as sort of power andnatural change, is a natural wastage within
(17:30):
the governance of the sport. Moira, would that be correct? Yeah,
I do think it's been proven thatwomen are extremely strong and obviously on the
field of play, and now it'sbeen it's also been proven as technical officials,
like they're very you know, thoroughat what they do. They're very
professional. And now that having hadone on the executive board myself that you
(17:55):
know, a professional of hard worker. So it's just it's just, you
know, I think from uh speakingfor the whole male male world, it
might be that they want to bethere and uh and why not why not
them? You know, they it'suh, they want to put their hand
in the ring, not to notgive it to somebody else, right,
(18:18):
but they are open to gender parityobviously, and and the increasing women's participation
in a governance role. Yes,yeah, they're they're getting there. I
mean, the messaging is still hasto be very strong. Um. There
was the thought of taking out therewere the term woman and putting in other
(18:40):
gender and I just thought it,We're not at that point. One day
we will be, I'm sure,but we still need to say that it's
women that we need to get forward. Um, because there'd been the it's
not been equitable, it's not beenequal for sure, but it's certainly not
been equitable. Well, given thatthat aspect of the sport is ongoing,
(19:02):
what are the changes would you liketo see take effect during your tenure with
the IWF Mora, Um, Well, I'd like to see obviously gender equity
in all places. I'd like tosee more female technical officials, and more
coaches and h and decision makers.However, of course I'd like to see
(19:26):
the sport the cleaner, a cleanersport. Well, clearly, that obviously
was something I would have been veryremiss if I had not brought that up
in this conversation Moira, because itis something that that has that has dogged
the Olympics, and it's brought toattention more in terms of media coverage when
it comes to the major competitions,and we of course have gone through Rio
(19:49):
yet with more incidents which have cometo light. This is a challenge for
any sport and it would seem thatthe IWF Weightlifting sport of weightlifting is faced
with this as much as any sportcan be, the challenge of getting the
sport clean. How do you getahead of the athletes and the sophisticated doping
(20:14):
that takes place now across the sport. I mean that. I know,
that's a huge question, and I'msure it goes round and round the table
at every meeting. It's one ofthe biggest challenges I would imagine that the
sport faces in every quadrenium. Yes, unfortunately, you're you're You're completely right
on that. It is one ofthe biggest challenges. UM. And I
(20:37):
think the keyword is education. UM. I believe that there's a certain um
generation, certain parts of the worldthat is not m it's not seen to
be wrong to to engage in doping. UM. I believe it's it's just
(21:00):
winning in their minds, you know. And Uh, it's unfortunate. I
mean, I come from a countrythat his sports system was turned inside out
and and upside down, UM afterthe eighty eight solo Olympics with Ben Johnson
and UM, you know, andthere's no uh and I've said before it's
(21:22):
it had to happen to a Canadianbecause I think we were the the nation
that would be shamed into doing something, you know, UM, and and
we did and and therefore we evenhost um you know, Wada is in
is in our country, UM isstationed in Montreal. So UH, I
believe, like the UH, weas a nation said we want to be
(21:48):
involved in in sport because it's becauseit's fun and we want like social inclusion,
we want our kids active. Butthat's not the reason that other nations
in the world participle pay in sportand other societies. And so then we
look at them with you know,our North American goggles on saying well,
you know, you shouldn't be doingnational finger wagging or whatever at them.
(22:14):
But they just come from a differentreality than us. So it's about education,
education, education. I think wehave to explain to them that you
can do all of this without that, without that assistance. Well, clearly
with gender parity, the sport ismoving forward and we're thankful for that for
women in sport generally. And theimplications that this has when one sport as
(22:38):
he does make progress in terms ofgender parity. We watched this thoroughly here
at WHISP Sports. So when youlook at what your role is and continues
to be for women, really representingwomen in a male dominated sport, what
would you like your legacy to be? What are you most enjoying now that
you would hope would care are afteryou leave that. It's sometimes when I'm
(23:08):
told that I represent all women atthe table, and I want to clarify
that I represent the sports. Youknow. I would like my legacy to
be that I affected some change.I affected change for the good of the
sports. And if that is havingmore women on the field of play,
(23:32):
which I think it is, andif that's having more coaches, female coaches
and giving them opportunities and allowing themto take their on and off ramps in
life, you know, a child, bearing years and all that, and
then bringing them back in and thengetting retired athletes, having them be involved
as technical officials, pushing women areasking just simply asking women to be to
(24:00):
stand for election, knowing you knowthey might not win, but just keep
going. It's just another form ofcompetition, after all. I think if
I can get that message out toall women and men that that is okay
to put your hand up, maybenot succeed, but just keep trying and
(24:21):
trying and trying, then I thinkI've I've done my job. That's what
I would hope my legacy would be. You're certainly pulling your weight, no
pun intended. It really is afascinating area of sport to be in weightlifting,
no doubt about it. And youclearly are making some changes there or
so thank you very much for yourcontribution, whether or not you feel you're
actually representing all women, but youknow, you know, you're taking a
(24:45):
piece with you every time you goto a meeting for the cause, so
we appreciate that. So thank youvery much indeed for what you do and
for coming on the program and tellingus about it. In the best of
luck. Thank you, thank you. And in fact, just a little
note, when we take our pictureof our executive board, we always take
you know, historical picture, andI always ensure that my hair is down
(25:07):
so that I look much different thanthe rest of the game, the rest
of the people in the picture,because I'm like, I need to.
I need to stand out, youknow, because I yeah, because I
used to not want to stand out. Now it's like now I must.
This is my responsibility is to standout because people need to know that it's
okay to be there. Continued goodluck with what you're doing at the IWM.
(25:32):
Okay, thanks Chris, and you'llfind a list of useful resources for
the sport of weightlifting on our websiteat whispsports dot com, where there's also
more global women's sports coverage, andyou can join in the conversations by following
us on social media. Just lookfor WHISP sports. We'd also love to
hear from you. If you haveany comments, questions, or suggestions,
(25:52):
just drop us a line to infoat whispsports dot com. Until the next
time, thank you for listening,Goodbye for now.
Hello, and welcome to the program. I'm Chris Stafford. On this episode
of our Sport in Focus podcast,we take a closer look at weightlifting.
Canadian Mora Lasson was the first womanto ever be elected to the International Weightlifting
Federation Executive Board and she's also chairof their Women's Commission. She spearheaded a
(00:31):
move to ensure gender parity for womenin the sport, said that they now
have equal categories with the men.Mora has played many roles in the sports,
serving on several committees, and shebegan officiating internationally in two thousand and
three. She's currently in Australia preparingfor the come Games in a couple of
year's time. Mora, welcome tothe program. Thank you thanks for having
(00:54):
me on. Well, I said, already in Australia. You are Canadian,
so you better explain why you're inthe Gold Coast there in Australia Queensland
preparing for the Commonwealth Games. Whatyour role is there right, Well,
I just came to Australia in Julyand I work at the Gold Coast twenty
eighteen Commonwealth Games. I'm in theposition of Executive Operations lead in the venue
(01:22):
operations in sport departments. So I'mkind of the right hand person to the
general manager. And I've just comeoff a year stint in Samoa where I
was the International Games Advisor and forthe Commonwealth Youth Games, and then a
couple of years over in the UK. And yeah, so I haven't been
(01:46):
I am Canadian, but I haven'tbeen living there for a couple of years
at least one quad. Okay,well, this is the reason why why
you have such a strong background insports and in the governing governance of sport,
which is what we want to hearabout more because we don't hear enough
of women taking lead roles in thegovernance of sports. But you have won
(02:06):
in very much in a male dominatedsport of weightlifting. And explain exactly what
your roles are there. Now.I know that you were elected, but
three years ago, wasn't it.So you've been on the executive committee now
for executive board for a little while. But why did you get into sports
governance in the first place, andspecifically weightlifting? Right? Well, I
(02:27):
actually got into weightlifting because of mydaughter. My daughter started. My daughter's
named Jeanie Lasson, and she startedweightlifting when she was about thirteen and we
lived in the north of Canada,so in white Horse, Yukon, which
is up by Alaska. And shewas really, really good, and the
(02:50):
timing was excellent because she qualified forabout the Canada Games when the sport was
in the Canada Games and the JuniorWorld for women, the very first ones.
So she qualified. And because Iwas willing to do the work,
she was willing to lift the weights. I was willing to lift all the
paper. So I got involved withthe sports from a governance perspective, as
(03:16):
you say in an admin perspective,Well, you certainly between you've been doing
the heavy lifting, haven't you,And I can see the reason why you
would choose the sport that your daughter'sinvolved with. But did you have a
sporting background prior to this? Wereyou an active athlete yourself? Mara sure.
I grew up in Ontario, insouthern Ontario, and everything was available
(03:38):
to us, funnily enough, notweightlifting at the time, just because of
it just wasn't drowned for women.So yeah, so we we did everything,
you know, mostly track and field. Yeah, so it was just
a natural progression. My daughter's extremelyathletic and she was never an organized sports
(03:59):
before were going to school like outsideextracurricular because we just couldn't afford for her
to be in any organized sport.But once she got involved in a school
club, then that's where it tookoff. Well, I think you've really
grasped the sport with both hands interms of getting involved in the trenches.
Really, I bitness, what's thirteenyears or so that you've been internationally officiating
(04:25):
for the sport. You've been onthe Scientific and Research Committee, the technical
committee, by laws and technical Imean really all that sort of heavy lifting,
backstage stuff that nobody really hears aboutuntil you come up with some definitive
decisions which affect the sport and particularlyfor women here and one that happened very
recently has meant gender parity in thesport in a very male dominated sport.
(04:46):
So how did that come about?Has that been on the boiler for a
little while before it emerged recently?Lura? Well, yeah, so we've
always wondered why there was one lessbodyweight cate glory for women, and this
has been the case even before wegot into the Olympics. It was always
there was always one less and whoknows why. So we just kept asking
(05:10):
the question. Then other people startedasking the question, and as I was
chair of the Women's Commission, wegot a small working group together of a
former world champion, Carolina Lundall anda former national team member from Great Britain
and now an international technical official HeatherAllison, and myself. We got together
(05:34):
and did a small scale survey andpresented a business case to the Executive Board
and to the IWF Secretariat and thatwas the catalyst of the change. So
it's quite exciting that we were ableto sort of it was the tipping point.
You know, everyone just kept ontalking about it for a while,
(05:56):
but nothing, no action up frontaction was taken place. So we thought,
well we'll put it out there andsee what happens. It took took
some women then, didn't it toaffect that of change as absolutely, And
we're very proud of it um.But we're also very proud and and and
(06:18):
please that the the male dominated sportand all the guys that are in power
saw the saw the realization for it. And you know with IOC Agenda twenty
twenty UM that was also like apiece of the puzzle that we could leverage
for gender equality as well as theUnited Nations Sustainable Development Goals twenty thirty.
(06:43):
We referenced that as well, andI always do because it's better to have
bigger players at the table, youknow, so to please I guess,
well, let's talk about just forthe sake of explaining to a wider audience
here, the actual cat gris thatthere are full weight lifting for women,
and that they're all in the OlympicGames. So are they that the IWF
(07:05):
approve. That's that's correct, that'scorrect. Um so, yeah, so
we have before this new decision,we had seven weight categories. We had
forty three or sorry, forty eight, fifty three, fifty eight, sixty
three, sixty nine, seventy fiveand seventy five plus. Now we're talking
(07:29):
kilograms. Um, so the heaviestweight category was seventy five plus. Uh,
that's not very heavy at all.And if you get an athlete who
is say five eight, five nineand then two and then a muscle a
musclely person as well, I mean, it's easy to be well over seventy
(07:51):
five kilos. And in fact,we noticed with the numbers that they were
closer to the average was closer toninety ninety to ninety three kilos, so
there was a disadvantage to the womenin the seventy five plus. So yeah,
that's why we we said, well, we removed seventy five plus,
(08:13):
insert ninety and then I have aninety plus. Okay, so there's something
for everyone. Then at all ofthe categories for women, now it's the
doors open. That's right, that'sright. And at first, when the
Women's Commission did it, we wethought, you know, the guys,
I'll never take ninety because it's justlarger. And we thought, oh,
(08:37):
they'll never go court, and wewant to get this pass. So we
were actually a bit more uh notso liberal with the with the with the
bodyweight category. So we said,okay, the logic is that there's on
average about nine point five kilos differencebetween all of the bodyweight categories that currently
(08:58):
existed, so we thought, okay, we'll just make it a ten kilo
jump, so at least, um, you know, we can we can
present that and go from there.And and I think, you know,
at first we felt like we haddone a disservice, but at the same
time, the objective was to getthe extra bodyweight category full stop, and
(09:20):
it was the aftermath of what thatcategory was was the debatable part. But
we had to get the category infirst, and that's what we did in
June at a executive board meeting.So you feel, I'm sure as part
of the Women's Commission there and forthe sport globally, really you have scored
a goal here more with this landmarkdecision. Oh absolutely, it's it's we
(09:46):
have full gender parody when it comesto the field of play for bodyweight categories.
It's fantastic. Um, we don'tquite have an IOC or like an
Olympic medal attached to this new bodyweightcategor that's the next step in the process.
Um, So any influencers out there, Um, you were looking for
(10:09):
another medal? Basically we'll be stronglypresenting that to the IOC. All right,
well, I hope the people thatmatter listening to this podcast and more.
That was going to be my question. Presumably this kicks off within the
sport internationally fairly soon, does it? But it but it's still got a
ways to go and more decision makingto before it makes it. Would it
(10:31):
in fact make it in time forthe Tokyo Olympics in twenty twenty, Yeah,
So within the sport. It becomeseffective January first, twenty seventeen,
and we already have the Commonwealth Gamestwenty eighteen, which is the next Calm
Games. They are have approved tohave this and they were a catalyst in
(10:52):
this as well, because we hadyou know, the Calm of Games Federation
out of London saying yes, we'daccept another bodyweight category. We had the
Organizing Committee doing the same thing um. And then also the Pan American Games
in Lima in h twenty nineteen alsosaid that they would accept the the extra
(11:15):
bodyweight category. So we had alot of players. They're also at the
weightlifting table, so this all helps. We had a lot of players saying
yes, it would it would fit, and it doesn't take much to add
this extra session, and the costsare kind of irrelevant. It's only really
one bodyweight category or one medal um. So all of these are you know,
(11:39):
pieces of the puzzle and you knowsteps up to the IOC to say,
uh, listen, these are allthese things have happened. Um,
So twenty twenty, Tokyo's ready,they know, because we do have some
strong Tokyo representation in our sport.In fact, the president of the Japanese
(12:01):
Weightlifting Federation is the newly elected governorof Tokyo. If you can imagine she's
she's quite an influential, influential womanwith a lot of supporters behind her,
like a couple of million. Soshe's with our sport, which is really
really impressive. And yeah, sowe're hoping that the IOC uh, you
(12:22):
know, we're using their words backto them about Agenda twenty twenty, so
we hope that they'll make the rightdecision. How about the sports own World
Championships. When is that on thecalendar? Mara our World Championships, so
it'll be it's effective right away inJanuary, So the Youth Worlds will have
an eighth bodyweight category for women inApril, the Junior Worlds in the following
(12:48):
in June, and then the WorldChampionships in the fall of twenty seventeen.
Okay, well it sounds like progress. You know. I want to just
remind everybody that back in twenty thirtywhen you were elected to the IWF Executive
Board, you made that point therethat you were looking forward to continually developing
(13:09):
the sport globally and engaging more women, more girls to participate, not just
as athletes, but also coaching andofficiating and hopefully in the governance of the
sport. Clearly that is happening,but give us a sense of perspective as
to how you feel the sport isgrown in those different categories, if you
will, great, well we're asa sport, we're doing very well with
(13:33):
female athletes. We've also changed ourrules in the last in the last Quad
in twenty eleven, allowing people towear like full singlets sorry it's full UNI
tards, so they can cover theirlegs and arms. This allows of course
(13:56):
Muslim women from all over the worldto compete, so it opens up another
catchment for us. UM. Soyeah, so our athlete base is doing
very well. We've had youth Worldsthat have had more female athletes at it
than male athletes, which is quiteexciting, youth being the ages of thirteen
to seventeen UM. But we dofalter with coaches, technical officials and elected
(14:22):
officials decision makers. M Yes,you mentioned there. The clothing that's been
allowed now for for the sport enablesMuslim women to participate. Does that include
headwear as well? Mora, Yes, And interestingly we've never had any restriction
(14:46):
on headwear. We just had toclarify that there was that it was acceptable.
We never had anything that you couldn'twear anything on your head um,
So yes, we just made itclear that any thing was you could wear
anything on your head as long asit didn't touch the bar when you were
lifting the way. Okay, okay, understood. Now you mentioned athletes and
(15:09):
coaches. Now what about the rolesof officials then, and also the governance
of the sport. Have you seenan increase in women's participation in those two
areas? This is the governance partis still an extreme struggle because it's of
course power positions and people don't liketo give those up very easily. We've
(15:33):
had to mandate in the last quadrennialand constitution change, we mandated a female
board member position, so one ofthe executive board members member voting voting times
was only available for women candidates.So it wasn't an an additional person on
(15:54):
the board. It was just therewas this one slot was only for female
candidates, and that's how I gotin. Otherwise it would not happen organically.
They're the powers that be, andthose around the table are not going
to let relinquish their positions easily,and women are it's just a different game.
(16:18):
It's a difficult place to win,to win votes. So we've done
this. We've presented also another constitutionalchange this time around, and we were
waiting for approval at the in Malaysiain mid October for a female vice president
position. This will be the same. It's not an additional person to the
(16:40):
executive board. It's just a votingregime that's only for women candidates. So
this will enable two mandated females onthe executive board, which is you know,
three is the tipping point, sowe'll get there sooner or later,
but there'll be two. So yeah, I'm really excited about that because that's
(17:03):
a huge change because they basically thepeople that are making the decisions are potentially
not going to be there anymore,knowing that when they make this decision that
it could be them that's knocked outof the race. Yeah, this is
interestingly shifted. It sounds to meis if this isn't necessarily sexism playing out
as much as sort of power andnatural change, is a natural wastage within
(17:30):
the governance of the sport. Moira, would that be correct? Yeah,
I do think it's been proven thatwomen are extremely strong and obviously on the
field of play, and now it'sbeen it's also been proven as technical officials,
like they're very you know, thoroughat what they do. They're very
professional. And now that having hadone on the executive board myself that you
(17:55):
know, a professional of hard worker. So it's just it's just, you
know, I think from uh speakingfor the whole male male world, it
might be that they want to bethere and uh and why not why not
them? You know, they it'suh, they want to put their hand
in the ring, not to notgive it to somebody else, right,
(18:18):
but they are open to gender parityobviously, and and the increasing women's participation
in a governance role. Yes,yeah, they're they're getting there. I
mean, the messaging is still hasto be very strong. Um. There
was the thought of taking out therewere the term woman and putting in other
(18:40):
gender and I just thought it,We're not at that point. One day
we will be, I'm sure,but we still need to say that it's
women that we need to get forward. Um, because there'd been the it's
not been equitable, it's not beenequal for sure, but it's certainly not
been equitable. Well, given thatthat aspect of the sport is ongoing,
(19:02):
what are the changes would you liketo see take effect during your tenure with
the IWF Mora, Um, Well, I'd like to see obviously gender equity
in all places. I'd like tosee more female technical officials, and more
coaches and h and decision makers.However, of course I'd like to see
(19:26):
the sport the cleaner, a cleanersport. Well, clearly, that obviously
was something I would have been veryremiss if I had not brought that up
in this conversation Moira, because itis something that that has that has dogged
the Olympics, and it's brought toattention more in terms of media coverage when
it comes to the major competitions,and we of course have gone through Rio
(19:49):
yet with more incidents which have cometo light. This is a challenge for
any sport and it would seem thatthe IWF Weightlifting sport of weightlifting is faced
with this as much as any sportcan be, the challenge of getting the
sport clean. How do you getahead of the athletes and the sophisticated doping
(20:14):
that takes place now across the sport. I mean that. I know,
that's a huge question, and I'msure it goes round and round the table
at every meeting. It's one ofthe biggest challenges I would imagine that the
sport faces in every quadrenium. Yes, unfortunately, you're you're You're completely right
on that. It is one ofthe biggest challenges. UM. And I
(20:37):
think the keyword is education. UM. I believe that there's a certain um
generation, certain parts of the worldthat is not m it's not seen to
be wrong to to engage in doping. UM. I believe it's it's just
(21:00):
winning in their minds, you know. And Uh, it's unfortunate. I
mean, I come from a countrythat his sports system was turned inside out
and and upside down, UM afterthe eighty eight solo Olympics with Ben Johnson
and UM, you know, andthere's no uh and I've said before it's
(21:22):
it had to happen to a Canadianbecause I think we were the the nation
that would be shamed into doing something, you know, UM, and and
we did and and therefore we evenhost um you know, Wada is in
is in our country, UM isstationed in Montreal. So UH, I
believe, like the UH, weas a nation said we want to be
(21:48):
involved in in sport because it's becauseit's fun and we want like social inclusion,
we want our kids active. Butthat's not the reason that other nations
in the world participle pay in sportand other societies. And so then we
look at them with you know,our North American goggles on saying well,
you know, you shouldn't be doingnational finger wagging or whatever at them.
(22:14):
But they just come from a differentreality than us. So it's about education,
education, education. I think wehave to explain to them that you
can do all of this without that, without that assistance. Well, clearly
with gender parity, the sport ismoving forward and we're thankful for that for
women in sport generally. And theimplications that this has when one sport as
(22:38):
he does make progress in terms ofgender parity. We watched this thoroughly here
at WHISP Sports. So when youlook at what your role is and continues
to be for women, really representingwomen in a male dominated sport, what
would you like your legacy to be? What are you most enjoying now that
you would hope would care are afteryou leave that. It's sometimes when I'm
(23:08):
told that I represent all women atthe table, and I want to clarify
that I represent the sports. Youknow. I would like my legacy to
be that I affected some change.I affected change for the good of the
sports. And if that is havingmore women on the field of play,
(23:32):
which I think it is, andif that's having more coaches, female coaches
and giving them opportunities and allowing themto take their on and off ramps in
life, you know, a child, bearing years and all that, and
then bringing them back in and thengetting retired athletes, having them be involved
as technical officials, pushing women areasking just simply asking women to be to
(24:00):
stand for election, knowing you knowthey might not win, but just keep
going. It's just another form ofcompetition, after all. I think if
I can get that message out toall women and men that that is okay
to put your hand up, maybenot succeed, but just keep trying and
(24:21):
trying and trying, then I thinkI've I've done my job. That's what
I would hope my legacy would be. You're certainly pulling your weight, no
pun intended. It really is afascinating area of sport to be in weightlifting,
no doubt about it. And youclearly are making some changes there or
so thank you very much for yourcontribution, whether or not you feel you're
actually representing all women, but youknow, you know, you're taking a
(24:45):
piece with you every time you goto a meeting for the cause, so
we appreciate that. So thank youvery much indeed for what you do and
for coming on the program and tellingus about it. In the best of
luck. Thank you, thank you. And in fact, just a little
note, when we take our pictureof our executive board, we always take
you know, historical picture, andI always ensure that my hair is down
(25:07):
so that I look much different thanthe rest of the game, the rest
of the people in the picture,because I'm like, I need to.
I need to stand out, youknow, because I yeah, because I
used to not want to stand out. Now it's like now I must.
This is my responsibility is to standout because people need to know that it's
okay to be there. Continued goodluck with what you're doing at the IWM.
(25:32):
Okay, thanks Chris, and you'llfind a list of useful resources for
the sport of weightlifting on our websiteat whispsports dot com, where there's also
more global women's sports coverage, andyou can join in the conversations by following
us on social media. Just lookfor WHISP sports. We'd also love to
hear from you. If you haveany comments, questions, or suggestions,
(25:52):
just drop us a line to infoat whispsports dot com. Until the next
time, thank you for listening,Goodbye for now.
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