While it is technically not official (the IWF Congress has to ratify the rules), the new bodyweight categories have been released. It’s now just a formality before these go into effect.
What makes the change the most interesting is how the IWF responded to the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) change to the number of bodyweight categories allowed in the 2020 Olympics. With only seven bodyweight categories allowed in the Olympics, the IWF has created two bodyweight categories – one for all IWF-sponsored events and one for the Olympics.
Sound confusing and a little weird? You’re not alone. It’s also unclear how the three bodyweight categories that get bumped in the Olympics will be filled during normal competition. We will be sort all that out in the coming months.
Until then, here are the old bodyweight categories, the new IWF categories and the new Olympic categories. We did our best to try to line up the old bodyweight categories to the new ones.
MEN
| Old | IWF | Olympic |
| 56 | 55 | |
| 62 | 61 | 61 |
| 69 | 67 | 67 |
| 77 | 73 | 73 |
| 85 | 81 | 81 |
| 89 | ||
| 94 | 96 | 96 |
| 102 | ||
| 105 | 109 | 109 |
| +105 | +109 | +109 |
WOMEN
| Old | IWF | Olympic |
| 45 | ||
| 48 | 49 | 49 |
| 53 | 55 | 55 |
| 58 | 59 | 59 |
| 63 | 64 | 64 |
| 69 | 71 | |
| 75 | 76 | 76 |
| 81 | ||
| 90 | 87 | 87 |
| +90 | +87 | +87 |
