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The Canadian achievements at the Olympics are normally rather associated with other sports than with weightlifting (athletics, swimming, or ice hockey, just to name a few), but lifters from the maple leaf country have already earned six medals in the Games. Four of them were won by two remarkable women: Christine Girard and Maude Charron (photo). They are so far the only two Olympic weightlifting champions for their country – Girard in 2012 and Charron in 2020ne. Member of the IWF Athletes Commission, Maude Charron lifted 105-131-236 in Tokyo (in the 64kg category), and became the most successful Canadian lifter in 2024, after clinching the silver in the 59kg with a Total of 106-130-236 in Paris. At the world level, Charron (born in April 1993) won a bronze in 2022 – she was also champion at the 2018 and 2022 Commonwealth Games. If Charron could properly enjoy her award ceremonies, that was not the case for Christina Girard. Also with two medals – besides the gold in London, she was a bronze medallist in Beijing 2008 -, they were given to Girard on a ‘delayed’ mode: in 2008, she had finished fourth, and in 2012 she was initially third. In 2016, a re-analysis of samples from both Olympics revealed that other athletes with medals had tested positive for prohibited substances. This led to the upgrade of Girard, who received in 2018 the gold medal for the London 2012 and the bronze for the Beijing 2008 Games. Moreover, she was first at the 2010 Commonwealth Games and the 2011 Pan-American Games. Before these two ‘golden’ ladies, Canada had medalled on two occasions at the Olympics: in 1952, with Gerry Gratton, and in 1984 with Jacques Demers, both with a silver medal.