12-year-old Ivy takes gold for Canada to become weightlifting’s youngest ever world champion – International Weightlifting Federation
Ivy Buzinhani Brustello made weightlifting history on the opening day of the 2023 IWF World Youth Championships in Durres, Albania when at the age of 12 she won a world title in 352 days.
According to the OlyFanatics database, which includes results from 34,000 athletes since 1898, before Ivy’s victory today in the women’s 40kg, no one under the age of 13 had won a medal in international competition.
“It was an amazing experience – I didn’t expect it,” said Ivy, who was born in Canada after her Brazilian parents moved there.
“I train five days a week, two hours a day, and I’ve always been competitive and good at controlling mental stress.
“I know weightlifting isn’t the most popular sport, but my friends at school think it’s pretty cool that I can go to a lot of competitions.”
Up until this trip, Ivy had only competed in Canada and the United States. She lifted in 12 events last year and had her best overall performance from 86kg to 112kg.
Ivy trained with teammate and close friend Emily Ibanez Guerrero, who trains in the 55kg category on Monday, and switched to weightlifting four years ago.
Emily is even younger than her 13th birthdayth Birthday is in December. She could oust Ivy as the youngest international weightlifting medalist within two days, and Ivy will be delighted to cheer for Emily at the Ramazan Njala Sport Complex.
Both girls will be back on Wednesday to support Brayan Ibanez, Emily’s 16-year-old brother who became Canada’s first World Youth medalist last year.
All three of these outstanding young athletes train at the same Montreal club run by Ivy’s trainer, Abigail Guerrero, and her husband, Ciro Ibanez, who was an international weightlifter for Cuba and a trainer in France and Spain before moving to Canada.
Guerrero said “Ivy is such a talent and she would be good at any sport she would try because of her mental toughness.”
Canada’s team of eight includes another strong medal contender in the women’s +81 kg super heavyweight division in Etta Mae Love.
Speaking English, French and Portuguese, Ivy clearly handles media interviews and showed excellent technique on the platform as she calmly scored personal bests. She made five out of six to win gold medals with 53-67-120.
Melek Sahin (TUR), third in the snatch, would have beaten Ivy by 1kg if she had made her last clean and jerk, but she failed and finished second with 53-66-119.
Third-placed Sabar Jyoshna (IND) was second in the snatch but only sixth in the clean and jerk, finishing 53-62-115, and Basma Gunaidy (EGY) took bronze in the 66kg clean and jerk after failing all three snatches had failed.
The Philippines had a one-two in the opening bout of the championships, the 49 kg men.
Keil Delos Santos made all six lifts to finish 92-113-205, ahead of teammate Eron Borres, who took the clean and jerk gold with 87-114-201.
Third place went to another six-of-six lifter, Dhanush Loganathan of India, who finished second in the snatch behind Delos Santos with a 88-112-200.
Both 15-year-old Filipino medalists went straight to weightlifting without taking up any other sport, Delos Santos at age nine and Borres at age eight – and both said it was their greatest ambition “Become an Olympic Champion”.
They were inspired, both said, by Hidilyn Diaz, who became the first female Olympic gold medalist in any sport for the Philippines in Tokyo 2021.
Bui Minh Dao, the 13-year-old Asian youth champion, missed two of his clean and jerks to finish fourth with 86-109-195, 1kg shy of his continental total last July.
By Brian Oliver, Inside the Games