Canada's Maude Charron claims Olympic silver in weightlifting

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PARIS – For three long years, Maude Charron believed in her heart that the Olympic experience was so much more than leaving with a medal around her neck.

The 31-year-old weightlifter from Rimouski, Que. experienced the ultimate achievement at Tokyo 2021 with her triumphant gold-medal win in the 64kg class. She left Japan feeling empty though, left craving for the full-on Olympic feeling.

On Thursday at a rocking Paris Expo Porte de Versailles she finally got it. Yes, the medal was silver – in a new weight class for her, five kilos lower – but the celebration was so much sweeter.

“The medal is just the cherry on top,” an emotional Charron said, the tears still fresh. “I didn’t come here for a medal. I didn’t come here for the podium. All I wanted was the experience of the Olympics that I didn’t have in Tokyo. I wanted to do the closing (ceremony.) I was invited to (be flagbearer at the opening) and now all I want to do is celebrate with my family. I saw them in the crowd. I heard them in the crowd. That’s why I came here.”

She played to all of them, even as Chinese star Luo Shifang was going to be near impossible to catch for the gold medal. Shifang won with a total of 241kg to Charron’s 236kg.

After each successful lift – all three in the snatch portion and her first two in the clean and jerk – the emotions poured out of Charron. The smile was wide and bright and after her third snatch attempt, a little dance as she exited the stage.

Besides the regrets of the the profoundly isolating Tokyo experience, Charron had to deal with a knee injury while also completely revamping her training and eating regimen to adjust to a new weight class.

The rewards came in bunches on Thursday, punctuated during the medal ceremony where she thrust two arms in the air. Then after a long gaze at her silver medal, wiped away some of the many tears that would follow.

“It was just pure joy,” Charron said. “I worked so hard and my coach worked so hard as well. We worked so hard to figure out how to work around my injures around the weight cut and around everything thrown at us.”

Charron had been open about her desire not merely to compete in Paris but to put on a show. The weightlifting competition certainly lends itself to it, with a prize-fight atmosphere and a fired-up crowd exhorting the best from the competitors. Charron thrived in the environment as she authoritatively lifted weights in her second Olympics that she rarely even tries in training.

“It’s so good,” Charron said of the incredible atmosphere in the arena. “We’re not used to having big crowds like this. The crowd, we need that fire. We’re lifting crazy amounts of weight and just by yourself sometimes it’s not enough. You need it loud. You need the claps and the fire and everything you can get to add to that fuel.”

And yes, it was in stark contrast to Tokyo where besides the quiet there was loneliness. Hearing her family in the crowd on Thursday was everything.

“In Tokyo there was a lot of anxiety in the village with Covid,” Charron said after her medal ceremony. “You got tested every day. It was all that stress. Like where’s my gang. Where’s my support system? It was happiness, yes, but also sour maybe. I did all of that (winning gold) and it was wonderful but I felt alone. Here I felt so well-surrounded.”

There were challenges, she acknowledged, but with a reward that is far more than a silver lining.

“As athletes we are always challenged,” Charron said. “I put everything on the platform and made sure I was ready as best as I could. We made the right decisions. We made it all worth it.”