He also wants to make weightlifting "cool" for young children and to make the sport more of a spectacle by running new competitions or "shows" in parallel with the traditional Olympic lifts.

Klokov, a world champion in 2005 and silver medallist at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, is one of four candidates standing for President in the Russian Weightlifting Federation (FTAR) elections on November 21.

Should he win, Klokov would be prepared to "share" duties with Maxim Agapitov, the current FTAR President who is planning to contest senior international roles early next year.

Agapitov won the last FTAR election in 2016 by a large majority and has the support of the federation’s Board this time.

Klokov, 37, said there was so much work to be done in rebuilding Russian weightlifting that it needs leaders both domestically and internationally.

He would focus on development and reforms within Russia if he won the election, while a newly appointed first vice-president would represent Russia internationally.

"I have not mentioned it to him yet but my first idea (for the international role) would be Maxim Agapitov," Klokov told insidethegames.

"I also have someone else in mind, somebody good, but he (Agapitov) has spent four years on the IWF Board, he knows the people – it would be wrong to lose him.

"In Russian weightlifting we have to focus on two things – what happens inside the country and what happens outside."

He believed Agapitov was prioritising the international situation "and maybe this is good because we have many problems outside the country - he is spending a lot of time and money on this and it is understandable.

"But at the same time we need to focus on inside Russia.

"We need two people with different power and roles, a President to focus on inside Russia and a first vice-president who represents Russia in the outside world, and represents the IWF in Russia.

"We also need more people on the committees and commissions of the IWF.

"Russia has the longest history in weightlifting, we have so much information from so many professional people in the sport, and we need more representation than we have now, with only Maxim Agapitov on the IWF Executive Board."

Agapitov, who has had to deal with a series of challenges relating to widespread doping before he took charge of the FTAR in 2016, is a leading candidate for the European Weightlifting Federation (EWF) Presidency.

That election is due to be held in April, within weeks of the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) Congress, in which Agapitov is also expected to feature.

He sits on the IWF Executive Board, from where he has been an outspoken critic of the corrupt regime of Tamás Aján, who resigned as IWF President in April, and of subsequent attempts to reform the sport’s governing body.

Agapitov requires the support of his national federation to stand for those continental and global roles.

Besides Klokov and Agapitov, two others are standing for President, Anton Kislyakov, an FTAR vice-president and Sergei Eremin, President of the Heraklion Foundation.

Klokov’s father Viacheslav, who was a world champion in 1983, was President of the FTAR from 1997 to 2000 and "still has a lot of ideas about weightlifting, and supports me" he said.

Viacheslav ran for the Presidency in 2016 when he was beaten by Agapitov.

Klokov retired from international competition in 2011 and last competed in Russia in 2013, but his popularity has grown as he has travelled the world conducting seminars – 435 of them in 63 countries.

He is a fan of Mixed Martial Arts and all strength sports who has competed in CrossFit, bodybuilding, and the USA’s National Pro Grid League, a multisport fitness competition that ran until 2016.

He has 700,000 social media followers on Instagram and Facebook but those fans will not help him to win the FTAR election so in the summer he spent three months visiting regional weightlifting centres all over Russia.

"We drove 32,000 kilometres (20,000 miles) in my car, non-stop travelling," said Klokov.

"I met all the people in different regions talking about programmes, about the future.

"I know who supports my ideas and who does not, this is why I am going for election."

Klokov wants to make changes to attract more children to weightlifting, with new competitions focusing only on technique, not numbers.

Children cannot go to a weightlifting gym before the age of nine but he believes those aged five to seven could be taught technique with plastic barbells.

To make it "more fun, cool, a chance to win medals" the children would have competitions in which they would be judged only on technique.

"It’s what they would do in the gym anyway – not lifting numbers but training for technique. It’s not all about weight."

Parents would be happy as well as the kids, he said, as there is a false perception – as there is in many parts of the world – that training for weightlifting can stunt a child’s growth.

Klokov would not want to change the Olympic lifts but would like to see the IWF and national federations adopt new ideas, new competition formats - "something parallel, something like a show.

"Look at boxing – Olympic and professional boxing are the same thing but different, and that helps to make boxing more popular.

"We have a good sport but in changing times weightlifting can maybe look good for specialists and is not so attractive for other spectators."

He is impressed by what happened in the United States, where a close alignment between USA Weightlifting and the CrossFit community led to a huge increase in the popularity of weightlifting.

"That is the sort of thing we should do here in Russia," he said.

Rebuilding Russian weightlifting is expensive and maintaining state funding, despite a lack of international success in recent years, is crucial to its future.

In an earlier interview Klokov said: "In order for any country to be at the top of a sport, it needs to be financed and supported like a ‘national idea’ with Government support."

Retaining state support is a challenge given that Russia was banned from Rio 2016, and can send only two athletes to the delayed Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games because of historic doping violations.

A slew of positives from the 2011 to 2015 period have led to many suspensions and there are more to come, though there has been a marked change of culture during Agapitov’s time in charge.

Agapitov said: "FTAR said no to double standards and everything that led to the crisis and bankruptcy of our federation in the past."

Since winning the last election with "overwhelming support", Agapitov said: "Today, four years later, FTAR is successful and ready to continue creative work to restore the former glory of Russian weightlifting.

"Everyone helped us, everyone made their own feasible contribution to the success of FTAR.

"I would like to say thank you to the Russian Olympic Committee, the All-Russian Association of Summer Olympic Sports, the Ministry of Sports of the Russian Federation, partners, sponsors and regions.

"It's a pity that we did not see the announced (rival) candidates in this list. I hope they will be around for the next four years, or at least not interfere with us."