About - Results of European Weightlifting Championships

about project

Preserving the Heritage of the European Weightlifting Federation

With the aim of promoting weightlifting and preserving the sport’s heritage, the European Weightlifting Federation has undertaken a significant initiative to collect, process, analyze, preserve, and disseminate historical results from European Championships held from 1948 to the present day.

This initiative was presented and was supported by IWF. It was created to meet the needs of a wide range of audience, including athletes, coaches, officials, journalists, marketing experts, historians, university students, and other weightlifting stakeholders. The historical results, once fragmented and difficult to access, are now consolidated into a comprehensive and user-friendly database.

EWF is confident that this database will be a significant resource, helping to preserve the sport’s tradition and promote its growth by showing past achievements and milestones. The project has successfully compiled over 75 years of men’s results (1948–2025) and over 35 years of women’s results (1988–2025) from the European Championships. The archival effort will continue, with the goal of tracing weightlifting history even further into the past.

Although the idea of compiling European weightlifting history is not new, the effort has been challenging due to the limited availability and fragmented nature of historical data. The objective of the project has been to centralize all Senior European Championships results in one accessible location for all who are passionate about the sport.

At the EWF Congress held on 17 February 2024 in Sofia, Bulgaria, the EWF Historical Commission was officially established. The Commission was chaired by Prof. Dr. Milan Mihajlović (SRB), General Secretary of the EWF, and includes members Zbigniew Gorlewski (POL), Gerhard Peya (AUT), Monika Kałas-Paterek (POL), Siegfried Steinmeir (AUT), and Karel Prohl (CZE).

Members of the EWF Historical Commission:
Dr Milan Mihajlovic (Serbia) - Chairperson, Zbigniew Gorlewski (Poland) - Member, Gerhard Peya (Austria) - Member Cooperation : Monika Kalas Paterek (Poland), Karel Prohl (Czech Republic), Siegfried Steinmeir (Austria)

Following initial discussions, Mr. Zbigniew Gorlewski undertook the task of organizing and preparing the historical materials he had collected over the years. The EWF Secretariat team prepared and developed the current version of the European Weightlifting Championships results database, which is now available for use.

Members of the EWF Historical Commission:
Zbigniew Gorlewski (POL)

Born on 7 December 1963 in Kcynia, Poland, Zbigniew Gorlewski has been recognized with the Bronze Star of both the Polish Weightlifting Federation and the European Weightlifting Federation for his contributions to preserving the history of the sport. A former boxer with the BRDA Bydgoszcz sports club (1979–1984), he has worked as a sports statistician since 1980. Initially focused on the history of boxing – publishing History of Polish Boxing in 2013 to commemorate the 90th anniversary of the Polish Boxing Federation – he has dedicated the past 15 years to weightlifting history. His private collection contains approximately 1,000 medals and memorabilia, including around 200 medals from World and European Championships (1954–2024), as well as numerous magazines, pins, publications, and pennants.

If anyone identifies a mistake or has additional information, they are kindly requested to contact EWF and Zbigniew Gorlewski in order to help ensure the database is as accurate and reliable as possible: secretariat@ewf.sport zibi.007@op.pl

European weightlifting has a deep-rooted and distinguished history dating back to the 19th century. The first European Senior Men’s Weightlifting Championships were held in Rotterdam (NED) in 1896. The inaugural European Senior Women’s Championships took place in San Marino (SMR) in 1988. These events were organized separately until 1998, when they were unified into a single competition.

Collection of the weightlifting medals

Each year, the EWF also organizes the European Junior & U23 Weightlifting Championships. Junior men’s competitions have been held since 1973, and junior women’s events began in 1998. The U23 Championships were introduced in 2009, initially held separately in Landskrona (Juniors) and Władysławowo (U23). Since then, they have been held together under the current format.

In addition, the EWF hosts the European Youth & U15 Weightlifting Championships annually. Youth Championships have been organized since 2003, and the U15 category was added in 2013. The predecessor to the Youth category was the U16 European Championships, which ran from 1991 to 2002 for boys and, starting from 1994, for girls as well – both hosted at the same venues.

Through this project, the EWF remains committed to preserving and promoting the heritage of European weightlifting for future generations.

As time passed, the borders and names of countries in Europe changed. Consequently, athletes also changed their national teams. We have identified this issue and are actively working on finding the best way to present results in such cases.