Sportstravel Podcast

Phil Andrews is credited with making multiple changes for the better over a decade of service at USA Weightlifting, including the past six years as CEO, and overseeing an elite team that at the Tokyo Olympics took home its first Olympic silver in women’s weightlifting. Among his challenges at the governing body was a deep debate internationally over the future of the sport, one that very well may see weightlifting removed from the Olympic program in future years over concerns about their approach, or lack thereof, to doping at the international level. Andrews was a fighter for the anti-doping cause, an effort that he pushed as he also fought to expand the sport of weightlifting to the widest audience possible in the United States. In July, he was named CEO of USA Fencing, an organization that has had its own challenges in recent years, especially in areas surrounding SafeSport. But it’s an organization with an even larger membership than weightlifting — around 40,000 members compared to about 30,000 — and one