Poland removed as host of weightlifting championships for refusing Russian athletes

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Poland has been removed as the host of two European junior weightlifting championships this year due to its refusal to allow athletes from Russia and Belarus to take part.

The continent’s governing body, the European Weightlifting Federation (EWF), announced that it has “decided to cancel the 2026 European Junior and U-23 Weightlifting Championships, which were scheduled to take place in Poland” in September. The events will be held in Albania in October instead.

“This decision was taken after the host country failed to provide the required guarantees for visa access for athletes from Russia and Belarus,” added the EWF, which says that it wants to “ensure that weightlifting continues to be a platform of inclusion, respect and solidarity”.

The EWF said that it believes “sport must remain above politics” and that it “does not accept discrimination based on political or geopolitical circumstances, especially at a time when such tensions are on the rise across the world”.

“The federation stands for inclusion, equal opportunity and unity through sport” and “remains committed to protecting athletes’ rights to participate fairly and without political barriers”.

The EWF made a similar decision in 2024, stripping Poland of the right to host the U-15 and U-17 European Championships (for athletes aged under 15 and under 17), which were held in Spain instead, notes news website Wirtualna Polska.

The Polish authorities have not yet commented on the EWF’s decision. However, last week, the foreign ministry confirmed that it would not provide visas to Russian ski jumpers who had been cleared to compete by the Court of Arbitration for Sport at a World Cup event in the town of Zakopane.

The ministry pointed to the fact that, since September 2022, restrictions have been in place on the entry of Russians to Poland. “Due to the impossibility of crossing the border, there are no grounds for accepting a visa application,” they wrote.

Last month, Poland’s sports minister, Jakub Rutnicki, had said, in relation to the ski jumpers, that “the idea of a Russian competing…is non-existent” and there would be “no discussion” of it.

“The Russian national team, even under a neutral flag, should not participate,” said Rutnicki. “Given what is happening beyond our eastern border [in Ukraine], and also within the territory of Poland, we cannot imagine that Russians could participate in any form.”

Poland has been one of Ukraine’s closest allies since Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022. It has also itself suffered from a series of “hybrid actions” carried out by Russian operatives, including sabotage, cyberattacks and disinformation campaigns.

This week, Poland also denied entry to Arina Fedorovtseva, a volleyball star for Turkish team Fenerbahçe, who were playing in the Polish city of Łódź on Tuesday.

“Due to restrictions imposed by Poland on Russian citizens, our player submitted a Schengen visa application through another European country,” wrote Fenerbahçe. “However, this application, which was finalised just before the match date, was rejected.”

Fenerbahçe still travelled to Poland and played the match without Fedorovtseva, defeating Łódź by three sets to nil.

Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.

Main image credit: Kremlin/Wikimedia Commons (under CC BY 3.0)

Daniel Tilles

Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.