2026 Sport Performance A/B Standards Released
COLORADO SPRINGS—USA Weightlifting today released the 2026 A/B standards which athletes will utilize to qualify for international teams and the National Team Program (NTP).
Click here to view 2026 A/B standards
The mission of USAW Sport Performance is to achieve Olympic podium success. This guiding principle is reflected in the development of the National Team Program, which is designed to support the most competitive athletes at the senior international level and develop a strong pipeline of promising athletes for the future, as well as in USAW’s selection procedures, which establish the following hierarchy for the selection of athletes for Team USA:
- Olympic qualification
- Selection of athletes who can compete among the world’s best
- Earning medals at the World Championships and Olympic Games
- Preparing athletes for success in international competition
The A/B Standards objectively identify the athletes most likely to meet these criteria.
During the previous thirteen months, the IWF decreased the number of categories per gender from ten to eight, established an entirely new set of bodyweight categories, revised one category five months later, and ultimately reset the group of categories again in November 2025. These adjustments were largely in response to ongoing decisions made by the IOC regarding quota allocations and number of contested categories in the LA 2028 Olympic Games.
This instability in category number and bodyweight definitions has created additional unpredictability in international performance standards.
The 2025 A/B Standards were set using IWF World Rankings from the Paris Olympic qualification years of 2022, 2023, and 2024. These rankings include results from Paris itself, where athletes Olivia Reeves and Hampton Morris earned the first U.S. weightlifting gold medal in twenty-four years and the first U.S. men’s weightlifting medal in forty years.
These results (2022, 2023, and 2024) are strong indicators of exactly what is required to qualify and podium at the Olympic Games. For this reason, and in the face of unprecedented bodyweight category instability in the 2025 competition year, USAW believes that the 2025 A/B Standards remain the most reliable method to assess performances in 2026. Accordingly, these standards will be reapplied as the 2026 A/B Standards for the purposes of National Team Program athlete ranking and international event selection.
A weighted average formula will be applied to determine standards for the forthcoming new IWF bodyweight categories (effective August 1, 2026), consistent with the method USAW used for previous category adjustments in the 2025 A/B Standards.
USAW will continue to monitor world rankings and the performances of American athletes against these standards throughout 2026 and will consider any necessary adjustments to maximize performance outcomes as LA 2028 approaches.
