Girard will get gold from 2012

Christine Girard is reconnecting with the version of herself who lifted twice her body weight over her head at the 2012 Olympic Games in London.

The businesswoman, weightlifting coach and mother of three children will be crowned Olympic champion years later.

The women ahead of her stripped of gold and silver months ago for doping violations, the International Olympic Committee has confirmed the medal redistribution of the women’s 63-kilogram class and Girard’s promotion from bronze to gold.

“It feels like it’s been so long,” Girard told The Canadian Press on Thursday. “I look at videos and pictures that pop up on my Facebook and it really feels like it was another life.”

Girard will receive not only her gold medal from 2012, but also a belated bronze from the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, at a ceremony to be organized by the Canadian Olympic Committee at a later date.

“Yes, it’s overdue, but the message of my medals is now so much stronger,” she said. “I want that moment to be not just for me. I want it for us. It’s a huge win for our country and for clean sport.”

Girard is Canada’s first Olympic champion in weightlifting and the first Canadian to win a pair of medals in the sport.

“She is a weightlifting trailblazer in so many ways and we are extremely proud of her,” COC president Tricia Smith said in a statement.

Kazakhstan’s Maiya Maneza and Russia’s Svetlana Tzarukaeva were disqualified for testing positive for steroids, according to the IOC.