Gottfried Schödl (Austria), 1924-2020
Gottfried Schödl (Austria), former IWF President, died today at the age of 95.
Mr. Gottfried Schödl was the President of the International Weightlifting Federation from August 1972 to December 2000. He ran the international Olympic weightlifting in the times of the eight Summer Olympics – in Munich (1972), Montreal (1976), Moscow (1980), Los Angeles (1984), Seoul (1988), Barcelona (1992), Atlanta (1996) and Sydney (2000).
Those were eventful Games with exciting lifting on competition platforms and tough decisions that had to be made off the competitions.
It was the time when the Olympic press was cancelled from the competitions in 1972. It was the time when the first drug-related actions were taken in this sport at the Olympics in 1972 and 1976. It was the time of two big boycotts of Summer Olympics in Moscow and Los Angeles. It was the time of massive commercialization of the Summer Olympics and introduction of women’s weightlifting into the IWF and Olympics programs.
Those were memorable and exciting times when the IWF was run by Gottfried Schödl of Austria. It is very sad to know that he passed away.
Our thoughts are with his family and friends.
RIP, President Schödl!