‘WORTH IT’
Canada’s Christine Girard finally got her day in the limelight. The weightlifter was presented Monday with gold and bronze Olympic medals she really earned back in 2008 and 2012. Their original recipients were stripped over steroid use.
Six agonizing, frustrating years in the making, Christine Girard offered a golden message about drug-free sport after finally receiving her long overdue Olympic weightlifting gold medal.
“Good things take time,” Girard said, wiping away tears after a lavish ceremony Monday at the National Arts Centre. “It’s the long-term game and that’s what we have to believe in. It was so long, but it was worth it.”
Girard originally won the bronze in the 63-kilogram class at the 2012 Games in London. After a retesting of blood samples in 2016, however, the gold and silver medal winners — Maiya Maneza of Kazakhstan and Svetlana Tzarukaeva of Russia — were stripped of their medals, along with their dignity, for steroid use.
Girard learned of her golden upgrade in April, but it was formalized Monday as she received the royal treatment in front of family and friends.
Girard stood on a makeshift Olympic podium as a children’s glee club from Montreal sang O Canada and a Maple Leaf flag was raised to the rafters.
Back in 2016, Girard also learned that she had won a bronze from the 2008 Games in Beijing, bumped up from fourth place when original silver medallist Irina Mekrassova of Kazakhstan also tested positive for steroid use.
In the process, Girard became the first Canadian woman to win an Olympic weightlifting medal.
As part of the festivities honouring Girard, Mounties brought Girard’s gold and bronze medals into the NAC.
“Today is a victory for our country, our values, and it’s a victory for clean sport,” she said. “It goes way beyond my name. I have my name associated to such a great story, but everybody needs to believe in their dreams. There’s a lot of hard work and patience. That’s what my medals mean to me.”
Under similar circumstances, many other athletes might have chosen to become bitter or turn inward about their misfortune.
They might also have chosen to bad-mouth the athletes who took the clean out of the clean-andjerk while stressing what was lost rather than what was gained.
By not being awarded for her medals amid the spotlight of the Olympic moments, Girard unquestionably lost out on significant endorsement and sponsorship possibilities. Trampoline star Rosie MacLennan was Canada’s only other gold medallist in London.
Girard originally received $10,000 from the Canadian Olympic Committee for winning the bronze in 2012, but says she has been promised the additional $10,000 that is awarded to gold medallists.
“I’m convinced that I lost a lot,” she said, candidly. “I trained in a carport that was barely heated, but that’s also where I built a gold medal from London. If I had those medals (at the) time, I would have had a different life. That’s for sure. But now I have the chance to go out there and tell my story and say, ‘Hey, it’s worth it to believe. It’s worth it to do it the right way.’ ”
While she says she was never once encouraged by a Canadian coach, trainer or official to take steroids to increase her strength, she recognizes that’s not necessarily the case for weightlifters elsewhere.
What is her message to the athletes from Russia and Kazakhstan who tested positive and to others who might think about taking that path?
“To believe that it’s possible to do it right,” she said. “To respect our bodies. That’s what I would like them to learn.”
Girard, 33, is now a mother of three and her days of competing are behind her.
At the same time, she has taken part in a number of committees aimed at cleaning up the sport around the world.
“I have been to a few symposiums and I can see how hard people are working to make those values spread,” she said. “I just hope Tokyo (Olympics in 2020) will be a cleaner Olympics and so will the next one. We’re on a good path now.”
Girard has paid a price for competing clean, but she’s earned respect along the way.
“It’s a lot of what ifs,” said Jeane Lassen, who also competed in weightlifting for Canada at the 2008 Olympics and was Girard’s longtime training partner.
“What if that day she won a gold medal? What if she got to see the flag go up? How different would her post-Games have gone? But Christine is the most adaptable, resilient athlete there is. She has taken the unfortunate turn of events and is using this as a platform to spread the message of drug-free sport.”
Girard is looking ahead. “There are always two sides of the story,” she said. “There’s the side that it has been so long (since 2012) that it makes no sense any more … or you can make it have sense. And that’s what I choose to do. I wanted to share it and make it so that Canadians can be proud of the moment.”
And then there’s this, which never would have happened on the Olympic stage.
The long overdue celebration allowed a beaming Girard to pose on the podium Monday surrounded by her three children: four-year-old Philip, two-yearold Alianna and nine-month-old Samuel.
That was a picture of pride.