60th Alpe Adria International Weightlifting Tournament 2026

The 60th Alpe Adria International Weightlifting Tournament takes place on Friday, 27 November 2026 at Palasport Bella Italia EFA Village, Viale Centrale 29, Lignano Sabbiadoro, Italy, with free entry. It is the most prestigious international weightlifting competition in the Alps–Adriatic region and the leading international weightlifting event in Friuli Venezia Giulia in the current Olympic cycle.

The tournament headlines a Weightlifting Weekend that also includes the Italian Under-13 and Under-15 Weightlifting Championships, the main national youth event of FIPE, the Italian Weightlifting Federation.

Competing teams

• National teams: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Slovenia
• Regional teams: Friuli Venezia Giulia (ITA), Veneto (ITA), Lower Austria – Niederösterreich (AUT), Zalaegerszeg (HUN)

Schedule – Friday, 27 November 2026

The Italian U13 and U15 Championships take place on [dates to be confirmed].

60 years of history

The Alpe Adria Tournament was founded in 1965 by Marcello Zoratti (Friuli Venezia Giulia, Italy), David Koffel (Carinthia, Austria) and Janko Grošelj (then Yugoslavia, now Slovenia).

The 2026 edition honours Marcello Zoratti, who died in 2023 and is widely regarded as the "father" of regional, Italian and European weightlifting in the second half of the 20th century. For more than 25 years he served as vice-president of both the Italian and the European Weightlifting Federations.

He helped turn Lignano into the "City of Sport" of Friuli Venezia Giulia. In 1981 he brought the European and World Weightlifting Championships to Lignano, and the city was awarded them again in 1984, the only time this has happened in the history of international weightlifting. He later organised the 23rd Alpe Adria Tournament (1987) and the European Promotion Cup (1997).