VENEZUELA.- The International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) announced the members of the Athletes’ Commission about the international body of the discipline for the period 2022-2024, where the Venezuelan Keydomar Vallenilla was elected to complete the list of 10 athletes.

The world champion is one of two weightlifters from the continent representing the Americas in the panel, together with the Canadian Maude Charron, to make up the historic representation, which for the first time has the IWF in its organization.

“For us it has been a great year, where every achievement of Venezuelan athletes is significant for the federation,” said Luis Seijas, President of the Venezuelan Weightlifting Federation and Vice President of the Venezuelan Olympic Committee (COV).

Vallenilla sealed this successful 2022 with the election to the Athletes’ Commission, counting in his record this year as “Best amateur athlete of Venezuela”, in the recent Golden Generation awards given in Caracas, champion of the South American Games held in Asuncion, Paraguay, and standing on the podium of the Bolivarian Games in Valledupar, Colombia, with gold and silver medals, in snatch and clean & jerk, respectively.

In addition to Keydomar, the only representative of the member countries of Centro Caribe Sports and Canadian Maude Charron, the spokespersons of the Continent, the IWF Athletes’ Commission includes Hidilyn Diaz of the Philippines, Fares Ibrahim Elbakh of Qatar, David Liti of New Zealand, Forrester Osei of Ghana, Luisa Peters of the Cook Islands, Marie Hanitra Roilya Ranaivosoa of Mauritius, Yasmin Zammit Stevens of Malta and Cyrille Tchatchet II of Great Britain.

The election took place between December 5 and 16, during the IWF 2022 World Championships in Bogota, Colombia, where the Sports Office of Ernst & Young Ltd., Switzerland, acted as Election Manager, in the election of the Athletes’ Commission.

Each athlete competing at the World Championships was eligible to cast his or her vote, choosing from a list of eighteen (18) candidates approved by the IWF’s independent Eligibility Determination Panel.

Vallenilla will be one of the elite athletes who will be at the upcoming XXIV Central American and Caribbean Games, San Salvador 2023, where weightlifting is scheduled for June 23-27 at the José Adolfo Pineda National Gymnasium.