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The International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) has put quality before quantity in its qualification system for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
It has also devised a system that, unlike qualifying for Tokyo, can be exploited by cheats because it allows athletes to “hide away for a year”.
It was privately dubbed “the North Korean qualifying system” by one of the delegates at an IWF gathering in Lausanne at the weekend.
Any complaints will fall on deaf ears, however, as the qualification system has been approved by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which has now published the document on its website.
The IWF has emailed the qualification system document to member federations but has not made any public statement about it on its website, where the document sits under the Olympic Games entry on the 2024 calendar of events.
In the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games there were places for all Continental Federations in all weight categories but that policy has been ditched after a huge cut in quota places.
Weightlifting had 260 athletes at Rio 2016 and 196 at Tokyo last year, but will have only 120 in Paris, which could be its farewell appearance as an Olympic sport.
The biggest sufferers under the new qualification system will be Africa and Oceania, judging by the qualifying rankings for Tokyo 2020.
There are fewer weight categories in Paris, 10 compared to 14 in Tokyo, with 12 athletes in each.
The maximum team size is down from eight to six, three men and three women; and the body weights have changed too.
