Russia’s Weightlifting Federation is introducing an AI-powered referee support system at the Magnit Russian Weightlifting Championships. Developed by Sberbank researchers, the technology analyses athletes’ movements and helps referees review disputed attempts.
From September 10 to 13, the Magnit Russian Weightlifting Championships will feature an AI-powered referee support system. The technology is not being introduced as a one-off test: following the Russian Championships, the system will continue to be used by the Russian Weightlifting Federation (RWF) as part of its competition process.
The innovative solution was developed by researchers from Sberbank as part of the Sber AI team. The system analyzes athletes’ attempts using video footage and provides referees with additional materials to review disputed situations.
The Russian Weightlifting Federation has become the first sports federation in Russia to integrate an AI system directly into judging at federal-level competitions. By adopting the technology, the RWF is taking a pioneering role and setting a new benchmark for the use of AI in Russian sport.
Using computer vision, the system identifies key points on an athlete’s body, creates a digital skeleton, tracks movement and calculates performance parameters. The analysis takes into account the individual engagement and fixation of the shoulder, elbow and knee joints.
AI helps formalize criteria that have traditionally been assessed visually by referees, including limb positioning, movement trajectory, stability of the final position and specific indicators of technical violations.
In the event of a disputed attempt, the jury receives the video footage, key frames and analytical results. The system works in a way comparable to VAR in football: AI does not replace referees or make the final decision. Instead, it provides additional objective data to support the review of a disputed episode.
“The introduction of an AI-powered referee support system is an important step in the development of sport. Our goal is to make the competition process even more transparent, modern and understandable.
At the same time, it is important that artificial intelligence does not replace the professional judgment of the refereeing panel. It serves as an additional tool that allows referees to quickly access relevant data, carefully review disputed situations and improve the quality of their decisions.
For us, this is not a one-off technology experiment, but the beginning of a systematic effort. We are grateful to our colleagues at Sber for this joint project and are confident that its further development will help establish new standards for judging — first at competitions in Russia and, in the future, on the international stage.”
— Dmitry Khomyakov, Secretary General of the Russian Weightlifting Federation
“It is fundamentally important for us that artificial intelligence in sport is already moving beyond laboratories and pilot projects. We are not simply developing and testing promising solutions — we are deploying them at federal-level competitions, where they deliver real value.
We thank the Russian Weightlifting Federation for its trust and partnership. Today, we are pioneers in this field together. Our next goal is to further develop the technology and, in the future, bring it to international competitions, including the Olympic Games.
Only through close cooperation with the professional sports community can technologies like this reach their full potential.”
— Maxim Eryomenko, Vice President and Director of the Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Technology Development Department, Sberbank
The Russian Championships will serve as the starting point for the technology’s further integration into the competition process. The Sberbank development team will continue to improve the innovative system in cooperation with the Russian Weightlifting Federation and sports experts, expanding the capabilities of modern AI technologies to support refereeing.