USAW is also planning to host an innovative mixed-gender international competition in Las Vegas in June and July.

The IWF sent out an appeal for potential hosts for its flagship event on March 23, after China withdrew because of concerns over the Covid-19 pandemic.

USAW replied immediately, sending in a proposal to host the IWF World Championships in Atlanta, the city that hosted one of the most-famous weightlifting contests in the sport’s history.

That was at the 1996 Olympic Games when the late Naim Suleymanoglu won his third straight Olympic gold medal in a memorable showdown with Valerios Leonidas of Greece.

Another legendary Greek lifter, Pyrros Dimas, won his second of three straight Olympic titles in Atlanta - and he is now USAW’s technical director.

China had planned to host the IWF World Championships in Chongqing in November, and had promised a "carnival of weightlifting" that featured an expo for the sport, and the concurrent China National Championships.

But because of a three-week quarantine period for visitors and fears over the spread of Covid-19, the Chinese Weightlifting Association withdrew last month.

The USAW bid also features a concurrent championships.

According to a statement from USAW, an Atlanta World Championships would start on or about November 27 and would use the same venue as the North American Open Finals - the Georgia International Convention Center.

The Open Series is one of the great successes of American weightlifting in recent years, attracting entries of more than 1,000.

The Convention Center is connected via a free train service to Atlanta International, the United States' busiest airport, and is within walking distance of host hotels.

USAW also submitted a bid to host the IWF Electoral Congress in Las Vegas on June 25-26, during USA Nationals Week, which will be held in conjunction with UFC International Fight Week.

The USAW Friendship Cup will also be staged for the first time that week at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

"This exhibition concept, not currently sanctioned by the IWF, will feature two-person teams where a man is randomly paired with a woman from a different nation," USAW said.

"Youth-level athletes will compete on June 25-27, followed by juniors on June 28-30 and seniors on July 1-3.

"Results will be determined by each team’s Sinclair coefficient."

"I had hoped to introduce the idea of a mixed-nation/mixed-gender team at a World Cup level, and I still hope this might happen internationally," USAW’s international relations director Ursula Papandrea, who was a former interim President of the IWF, said.

"I think it is another example that demonstrates the USA Weightlifting 'action versus talk' approach."

The United States successfully hosted the senior IWF World Championships in 2015 and 2017, in Houston, Texas and Anaheim, California respectively, and also hosted the 2019 IWF Youth World Championships in Las Vegas.

No other national federation has yet announced its intent to bid for either the IWF World Championships or the Electoral Congress.