Weightlifting gold is the culmination of Charron’s athletic journey.
64 kg Olympic Games Tokyo 2020
On Day 4, the 28-year-old weightlifter from Rimouski, Quebec, won the women’s 64kg division, giving Canada its second gold medal at Tokyo 2020.
After lifting 131 kg on her third effort in the clean and jerk, Charron was extremely distraught.
She knew the gold medal was hers. While she was ecstatic to place third in her Olympic debut, her joy was dampened by the knowledge that her loved ones were missing out on the action.
I came here feeling I was already a winner because I made it to the Olympics,” Charron remarked afterward. All I want is for my loved ones to be here with me in person. This might be my way of showing appreciation for all they’ve done for me throughout my life.
I feel both joy and Disappointment.
Charron’s life has taken many turns in the athletic world, but she’s always had that constant companion to lean on.
She began her athletic career as a gymnast, continued her education at the Quebec Circus School while still a teenager, and is now dedicated to CrossFit.
All of that Training and Competition Helped Shape her into the Athlete she is Today.
For her, gymnastics was the ideal way to develop fundamental skills like balance and strength. Additionally, I honed my skills in stress management.
Then in the circus, of course, everything was about the performance. It’s similar [in weightlifting] in that it’s just me out there in front of an audience, and I have to keep their attention.
Then I Joined CrossFit, and that’s where I really Started to build Muscle.
I didn’t put much effort into developing that component of my physique, but that’s when I found out I’m fairly strong.
It was also there that coach Serge Chretien noticed her and suggested she try weightlifting.
Charron, who had successfully made the switch to various other sports, caught on quickly to the new competition.
She started competing in 2015, only five months after she made the switch, and she competed in her first national championship that same year. Her breakthrough came the following year, when she won bronze at the FISU World University Championships in the 63-kilogram division.
Two years later, in 2018, she won gold in the 63-kilogram division at the Commonwealth Games, putting herself in medal contention for Tokyo. She stared at the medal for a while to be sure it was real, and now she can add Olympic gold to her collection.
A Canadian medal, as Charron put it.
The Canadian weightlifting team has been waiting for this medal since since Christine Girard won hers.
Prior to Charron, Girard was the only Canadian woman to win an Olympic medal in weightlifting, with a bronze in Beijing in 2008 and a gold in London in 2012. After Charron won her first national championship, she presented her with a gold medal.
Charron exclaimed, “Oh my God, that’s Christine Girard!” after recognising the actress. To this day, I still find myself thinking, “Oh my God, that’s Christine Girard talking to me!”
A few Weeks before the Tokyo Games, Charron said Girard came out to her with Questions and Advice.
Charron explained, “[She was] trying to pep talk us on how to deal with it by simply treating this like any other competition.”
Despite the abundance of Olympic rings, the snatch and clean and jerk are still performed in sets of three.
And in the end, all it took was six lifts for Charron to culminate a lifetime of varied physical endeavours.
