Winning an Olympic gold medal is often the height of an athlete’s career. After all, when you’re crowned the best of the best at the biggest sporting event in the world, what’s left to accomplish? What’s left to check off your list of goals?
For Tokyo 2020 gold medallist Maude Charron, the most important goal for her second Olympic Games wasn’t to reach the summit of the podium once more, it wasn’t even to medal. Her quest for Paris 2024 was to make the most of the “true” Olympic experience, one that she missed out on three years ago due to COVID-19 restrictions.
“I wanted to experience an opening ceremony, hear my family and see the Canadian flags in the stands. As soon as I made my first snatch, my goal was achieved,” said Charron, who was one of Team Canada’s flag bearers at this year’s opening ceremonies.
The road to Paris 2024 wasn’t a walk in the park for Charron. For starters, as the weight class in which she was crowned Olympic champion, the 64 kg, was pulled from the program, she was required to drop weight classes. After finding her footing in her new weight class, the 59 kg, winning bronze at the 2022 World Championships and gold a few months later, at the 2023 Pan American Championships, she faced a knee injury which forced her to pass on the World Championships in 2023. She returned to competition in time for the 2023 Santiago Pan American Games in October, where she won silver.
On the competition floor at Paris 2024, Charron completed her first snatch successfully at 101 kg, before nailing her next two attempts at 104 kg and 106 kg, tying her Canadian record with her final attempt.
“I did my best. We had planned to go for 107 kg for my last snatch, but my coach knew what we needed. We decided that 106 kg was a safer bet. I just trusted the team and went for it,” said the lifter, who used “we” in reference to her strategy and her success in an interview with Radio-Canada, emphasizing that she had quite the team behind her, including some stellar coaches, helping her in this competition.
In the clean and jerk, she made her first successful attempt at 126 kg, and her second at 140 kg. This lift brought her total to 236 kg, the same total weight that she lifted to bring home the gold at Tokyo 2020, but this time, a full 5 kg below her previous weight class. She had maxed out at 105 kg in the snatch and 131 kg in the clean and jerk.
She tried for 132 kg in her third and final attempt but was unsuccessful; her first missed attempt at this competition.
With a total of 236 kg, the Canadian took second place, finishing just behind China’s Luo Shifang, who totalled 241 kg. Kuo Hsing-Chun of Chinese Taipei, the 2020 Olympic champion in this weight class, finished third.
“The medal is a huge bonus, said Charron after the event. I knew we had a chance. First place was a bit of a longshot. China’s athlete had a lot of kilos on us, but we pushed during the snatch. In the clean and jerk, it was just a question of staying in the game. We weren’t putting pressure on ourselves for a podium finish.”
“This medal is the cherry on top. I had the perfect outcome in Tokyo, but this time I wanted the Olympic experience,” explained the two-time Olympic medallist.
Even though she’s wrapped up competition, Charron’s Olympic adventure is far from over. “Now, I want to celebrate with my family, see some other sports, and participate in the closing ceremony. Just enjoy the Games.”
In fact, the first words spoken to her by her family after her Olympic podium finish illustrate what was most important to the Sainte-Luce-sur-Mer, Quebec native. They simply said, “We’re here.”
