The annual electoral congress of the weightlifting federation of Iceland took place on Sunday 27th of March. A new board was elected and for the first time since the founding year of the federation in 1973 a female president was elected, Helga Hlín Hakonadottir an attorney that has competed in several weightlifting competitions on a masters level. She will lead a board of 12 that includes two athlete representatives and four vice board members. New General Secretary is Erna Hedinsdottir.
At the congress the general secretary of the Icelandic sport association and NOC Andri Stefansson and former president of WFI Magnus Thordarson signed an agreement that upgrades the federation to a mid tier (B) federation within the Icelandic NOC sport system with a significant increase in funds for weightlifters.
The federation also used the moment to honor seven persons that have contributed significantly to the sport of Olympic weightlifting in Iceland as first recepients of its honorary award; Gudmundur Sigurdsson, Birgir Thor Borgthorsson, Gudmundur Helgason, Gisli Kristjansson, Hronn Svansdottir, Anna Hulda Olafsdottir and Thuridur Erla Helgadottir.
First weightlifting competition in Iceland was held in 1963. Before the federation was formally created within the Icelandic sports association it had one weightlifter in 1968 Olympics and two athletes in 1972. The following years were good for the sport and again we had appearance in Montreal 1976 with one weightlifter and three at Moscow in 1980 which were the last Olympics represented by Icelandic Weightlifters. The sport stayed strong throughout the 80’s with continental and world championship appearances but declined in the 90’s and in the 2000s the sports association considered to terminate the federation with less then ten active lifters. But with the perseverance of few key people activities started again in 2010 and participation has grown in the last decade to a stable number of about thousand members.
Source: Iceland weightlifting federation
