The kettlebell marathon is one of the origins of kettlebell sport.
Until 2010, it was considered more of a personal challenge than a competitive sport.
Today, the popularity of kettlebell marathons is increasing around the world, and the IKMF is leading the way in standardizing rules and promoting competitions.
Since 2020, IKMF has been open to other disciplines such as IKMF games (created by Stéphane Dauvergne, IKMF founder and president) and pentathlon (created by Valéry Fedorenko) in order to reach out a wider audience.
Now IKMF can be proposed competition from children (7 years) to senior (>70 years).
Since 2021 due to the large number of events in competition IKMF has decided to divide its world championship into 2 parts :
From January 1 , 2023, IKMF will award a belt (boxing or wrestling type belt) to the country that has won the most medals in the general team classification.
A cash prize will be offered, to the best in their category of body weight, movement, age and sex. During a draw which will be carried out the day before the competition, during the opening ceremony.
For non IKMF member countries, from January 1, 2024, following strong demand, a veteran category 2 will be open for the pentathlon, but no rank will be created for the year 2024, we are waiting to have more data for this. For the marathon and half-marathon events (due to the lack of athletes on the podiums) the body weight categories will be merged if there are not at least 3 athletes per category, age and movement.
Creation of an IKMF certified coach section. So that athletes can find coaches specialized in IKMF events :
IKMF No member Countries
From 1st January 2025, new in 2025: Pentathlon Rank for Veteran 2, Update of pentathlon ranks, creation of a record diploma for the best results achieved in the IKMF world championship.