Christine Girard in action at the London 2012 Games – from:torontosun.com
Article by Giovanni Manenti
Il Canada is certainly not a nation that, traditionally, can boast specialists in a sport like weightlifting.as evidenced by its placement in 27th position in the Olympic medal table of that discipline – with 5 laurels, consisting of two golds, as many silvers and one bronze – but with the additional peculiarity that until the London 2012 Games no representative of the “Maple Leaf Country“had never stood on the highest step of the podium…
And, to dispel such a taboo, in a sport which, by its nature, is mostly placed in the collective imagination as reserved for the male sector, she is vice versa a representative of the “fair sex”, the protagonist of our history today and who, moreover, lives at the end of the first decade of the new Millennium, a three-year period at the top in the category up to 63 kilograms.
Born on January 3, 1985 in Elliott Lake, a city of just over 10 thousand souls located in Ontario, Christine Girard and “fall in love” of Weightlifting when he moved with his family (including three sisters …) to Quebec, participating in some provincial competitions at the age of just 12, and then joining the Canadian national team already at the age of 16 …
Its debut in a major international event took place at the beginning of July 2001 on the occasion of Junior World Championships which saw her finish in 16th position with a total of 167.5 kg in the two specialties of snatch and clean, and then confirming this placement at the same event two years later, despite increasing his total at 182.5 kilograms.
The progressive growth of the Canadian weightlifter passes through her last two participations in the Junior Iridata review, which saw her place tenth in 2004 and ninth in 2005 with the respective lifts of 185.0 and 188.0 kilos, so as to be able, now 21 years old, to participate in the absolute World Championships scheduled for the beginning of October 2006 in Santo Domingo…
The comparison with the best specialists on the planet does not scare the young Canadian that much, who for the first time in her career she exceeds 200 kilos in total, thanks to the 90 lifted in the snatch and the 119 in the clean and jerk for a total of 209.0 kg which places her in 12th positionwith the title going to the unapproachable Chinese Ouyang Xiaofang with 246.0 kg.
In any case, a comforting debut, as is participation in the next edition took place in mid-September 2007 in Chiang Mai, Thailand, an event which saw Girard improve to 221.0 kg (95+126) which earned her eighth place, with China once again dominating the scene, this time fielding 27-year-old Liu Haixia, who combines the world title with the world record with a total of 257.0 kilos…
Asian country which, hosting the Olympics the following year, is forced by the IOC regulation to limit participation to just four athletes in the seven scheduled categories, so that excluding the category up to 63 kilograms, to the advantage of North Korea’s Pak Hyon-suk who only needs 241.0 kilos (106+135) to win the Gold Medalwith a 10 kilo margin over Taipei representative Lu Ying-chi…
To tell the truth, the Kazakh had taken steps to counter Pak’s statement Irina Nekrassova, at the top of the provisional ranking after the 110 kg lifted in the sprint, only to give in narrowly with her total of 240 kilos, except that the silver she won was subsequently taken away from her for having tested positive at the doping control for one of Stanozolol, an anabolic steroid…
Of this disqualification he takes advantage (in addition to Lu, obviously…) precisely Girard, who originally placed fourth, with a total (102-126) of 228 kilos as evidence of her continued progress of the Canadian weightlifter who is preparing to experience the “Period of Glory” of his competitive activity.
In fact, having reached full psychophysical maturity (measuring 1.60m for 63kg), Girard began to have problems getting back into the weight category and, after having won silver at the Pan American Games in mid-July 2009 in Rio de Janeiro, behind (kg.224 to 221) the Colombian Leydi Solisis forced to go up to the upper class up to 69 kilograms…
This circumstance forces her to the next one World Championships at the end of November in Goyang, South Korea, competing against athletes much more accustomed to this category, paying the price with an eighth place despite having lifted (103+132) 235 kilos, given that the Armenian Nazik Avdalyan secures the title ahead of the Russian Oxana Slivenko (kg.266 to 264).
A situation that does not change the following year, when i World Championships were held in mid-September 2010 in Antalya, Turkey, where the now 25-year-old Canadian worsened his performance by not going beyond the 231 overall, although he gained a place in the ranking by finishing seventh with the title reserved for the Russian Svetlana Shimkova with 256 kilograms…
An important injection of confidence comes for Girard from Gold medal won – just one month later – at the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi, where, with admittedly rather poor competition, he nevertheless returned to lift (105-135) 235 kilos for what represents his first important success internationally.
At this point, for the 26-year-old Christine, the time comes to make, in agreement with her coach, the decision that represents the turning point of her career, that is, to immense sacrifices to reduce one’s body weight and fall into the lower category of up to 63kg, sacrifices compensated by the outcome of the 2011 edition of Pan American Games at the end of October in Guadalajara which saw her win Gold with a total of 238 kilos (106-132) liftedpreceding the Colombian Nisida Palomeque who stops at 235 …
The having increased the total of her lifts despite having lost weight represents a very validbusiness card” in view of the key event of the suggestive season, constituted by the London 2012 Games, in all probability the last opportunity to reach the “Olympic Glory”, despite the negative outcome of the World Championships at the beginning of November 2011 in Paris, which saw Girard finish no better than seventh despite having equaled the total of 238 kg lifted.
It is therefore obvious that the 27 year old from Ontario certainly cannot be the clear favorite for the Gold in the race which will take place on 31 July 2012 on the platforms of the “Exhibition Centre London” in Newham, a suburb of the English capital, with i predictions focused on the Kazakh Maiya Maneza and the Russian Svetlana Tsarukaeva …
Pesiste, the latter, which conclude ai first two places go to the morning session dedicated to the snatch – with the Russian accumulating an advantage (kg.112 to 110) over her rival – with the Girard fourth with 103kg (also preceded by the Turkish Sibel Simsek with 105…), after having failed in her two remaining attempts on that quota.
Canadian who redeems himself in the test of momentum, where he obtained two positive lifts at kg.130 and 133 and then failed the last attempt at 135, still enough to overtake the Turkish athlete in the ranking (kg.236 at 235) and come close to silvergiven that Tsarukaeva did not lift more than 125 kilos in the first test, failing the other two, so as to finish at 237 kilos…
Russian flop exploited by Maneza, for whom the 135 kilos lifted on the first attempt were enough to reach an unapproachable total of 245 kg (also equal to the Olympic record…) which guarantees her the Gold Medalor at least so he thinks, since in this Discipline surprises are always the order of the day…
Sure, on Maneza, Tsarukaeva and Girard climb the podium in London, but even after 4 and 5 years, new analyzes on the urine samples of the athletes requested by WADA in its Crusade against Doping, allow us to detect for the first two the presence of the “notorious” Stanozolol, so as to be deprived of their medals and, consequently, both with a delayed outcome, the Gold consequently passes to the Canadianwho thus becomes the first athlete from her country to obtain this result in the Weightlifting Discipline.
News that reaches the Girard after she stopped working at the conclusion of the London Games to pursue a career as a coachhaving in the meantime married her technician Walter Bailey, a union from which she had three children…
Perhaps it is time to remember the old Japanese adage that states: “Revenge is a dish best eaten cold…!!” …, Perhaps “freezing” in this case …