Glasgow 2026 – Weightlifting aims to continue podium success

Multiple Commonwealth Games medallist and experienced Olympic lifter, David Liti, as an Elite TAPS athlete, works with a number of HPSNZ’s Athlete Performance Support (APS) team including performance nutritionist Christel Dunshea-Mooij and Physiotherapist Louise Johnson.

At the other end of the experience scale is 19-year-old Olivia Selemaia who came within a whisker of a bronze medal at the 2025 World Championships.

Olivia was part of HPSNZ’s Performance Pathways programme in 2022/23 which focused on developing her transition readiness in sport and life by helping her develop a long-term plan that aligned with her short-term plan and set up her support networks.

There’s a further HPSNZ link within Weightlifting NZ and its high performance programme. Kelly Ihaka-Pitama, High Performance Manager at Weightlifting NZ, is a graduate of the HPSNZ Women in High Performance Sport residency programme which saw her spend 18 months in the HP role.

These days she still manages the HP role, but as a volunteer, which sees her facilitating between the NSO and David and coach Tina Ball, and monitoring the young stars coming through.

The results of a concentrated focus on high performance are starting to speak for themselves, and President of Weightlifting NZ, Simon Kent is optimistic about the prospects for David, Olivia and a number of other lifters.

“The Commonwealth Games are hugely important for Weightlifting and we feel it is a unique opportunity to be one of only 10 sports in the 2026 Games,” says Simon.

“We are excited by the development of our young women weightlifters who are really exciting prospects and reflect the significant efforts the sport has made since 2017 to recognise and develop them.

“Improvements are happening so quickly in women’s weightlifting in New Zealand we don’t know what normal looks like anymore. For example, until 2023 there were only four women who had snatched over 100kgs. We now have 12 women achieving that mark. As recently as the November National Championships we had two women snatching 110kg and 111kg respectively.”

While Weightlifting has been an Olympic sport since the first Games of the modern era, it first made an appearance at a Commonwealth Games in 1950, fittingly held in Auckland, with New Zealanders taking out gold in the heavyweight and silver in the middleweight divisions.

Since then its rich history of medal success has continued with 12 gold, 12 silver and 15 bronze medals in 19 Commonwealth Games, making it New Zealand’s seventh most successful sport, alongside Bowls.

Fast forward to Glasgow 2026 and hopes are high for further medal success at the Scottish Event Campus, SEC Armadillo.