A weightlifting competition is not limited to the lifting plate. Behind the curtains, the athletes warm up, work on the bars and try to relieve stress while the coaches try to anticipate the competition’s strategies.
Charlotte Simoneau was anxious as ever at the start of the Junior World Championships in León, Spain, last week. Triple silver medalist a year earlier, she was among the favorites in the under 71 kg category, her new weight category since the spring. The three-time junior Pan American champion was aiming for nothing less than combined gold.
“It was very special,” the 19-year-old weightlifter said Monday. Usually, I’m stressed for a competition, but here, I was really, really stressed! I knew the size of the event and I knew my group would be very competitive. I had a little trouble eating. I generally have good technique and am consistent, but in the back warm-up for the snatch, it wasn’t great! »
The athlete from Saint-Hyacinthe struggled to lift a 90 kg bar while a load of 105 kg awaited him for his first attempt.
The 90 was shaking… I had to talk to myself: “OK, Charlotte, breathe, it’s going to be fine.”
Charlotte Simoneau, about her first attempt
She did well to listen to herself. After a first success at 105 kg, the Canadian was able to lift 108 kg and 110 kg to win a first gold medal.
In the clean and jerk, her closest pursuer, a Colombian, missed her three attempts, which gave her room to maneuver even before her first lift. The Quebecer first passed the test at 125 kg before taking the lead definitively with a second success at 128 kg.
On her last attempt, she smiled as she dropped the 130 kg dumbbell, a success which sealed her triple victory and allowed her to add two gold medals to her collection.
“I kind of knew I won because I was the last one to lift and I was already first. When I finished the throw, I was just like: whoa, what’s happening? I couldn’t believe it. And the stress was gone…”
From gymnastics to weightlifting
This junior world champion title is a first in the history of Canadian weightlifting. With 110 kg in the snatch, Charlotte Simoneau improved by 3 kg her own Canadian senior record set earlier this summer at the Junior Pan American Championships. Her total of 240 kg also allows her to equal the Canadian senior mark achieved by double Olympic athlete Marie-Ève Beauchemin-Nadeau, fifth at the London Games in 2012.
“My goal was to win a medal, but I was really aiming for the total,” Simoneau said. I’m still surprised to have been able to collect the three gold medals. And I’m Canada’s first junior world champion… I’m very happy. I wasn’t going there to make history, but it happened like that…”
Coming from La Machine Rouge, a well-known club in Saint-Hyacinthe, Simoneau first practiced gymnastics, like double Olympic medalist Maude Charron.
She switched to weightlifting around age 12 when her coach, with whom she said she didn’t have the most harmonious relationship, suggested she improve her upper body power.
“I have a strong character and we had a little difficulty with each other. The weight club is in the same building where I trained. When she told me that, I decided to go and strengthen myself. So I started weightlifting. Finally, I think I’m strong enough! »
Upon his arrival at La Machine Rouge, Simoneau worked alongside several international-level colleagues, including Tali Darsigny who was beginning her qualification process for the Tokyo Olympics. Her father, coach Yvan Darsigny, took her under his wing.
PHOTO TAKEN FROM CHARLOTTE SIMONEAU’S INSTAGRAM ACCOUNT
Charlotte Simoneau with her trainer Yvan Darsigny
“I kind of became his second daughter and Tali, my big sister. Tali had also started the sport young and they really guided me through the stages of my development. »
In addition to Tali Darsigny, who retired last year, Rachel Leblanc-Bazinet also represented La Machine Rouge in Tokyo in 2021. The charges raised by Simoneau in Spain would have allowed her to qualify for the Paris Olympics.
“I have been told this often, but I was not in the same category and I did not have the level when the process began, two years ago,” she explained. There, I’m almost on the same bars as the girls who went to the Olympic Games this year. It definitely motivates me and gives me positive momentum. […] This is the next long-term goal. »
While awaiting the unveiling of the qualification parameters and the weight categories which will be represented in Los Angeles in 2028, Charlotte Simoneau will have a first opportunity to participate in the Senior World Championships, in Bahrain, in December. His wish is to improve his personal brands.
I’m not aiming for medals in any way because that would be too much to ask, but I just want to see if I can do a top 10. That would be crazy.
Charlotte Simoneau, on her participation in the Senior Worlds in December
Next year, the Cascades scholarship recipient from the Aléo foundation will have one last opportunity to compete against the best junior weightlifters on the planet at the Worlds in Uzbekistan, an opportunity she does not want to miss.
“I won this year, but things change so much all the time in weightlifting that it doesn’t necessarily mean you’re going to win the year after. I will give everything to try to come even stronger. »
And maybe a little less nervous before going on set.