Cormier headed back to the Hall of Fame
Swift Current resident Wayne Cormier will be inducted into the Moose Jaw District Sports Hall of Fame for a second time. After being inducted as a builder/coach in 2019, the decorated powerlifter will be inducted as an athlete on October 27.
“It’s indeed an honour to be recognized by my home community of peers. That’s where it really started and it’s where it’s really ended. That’s the bittersweet part of it is the sweet part of being inducted into the hall of fame. The bitter piece is acknowledging that I’ll never compete again,” said Cormier, who will be part of the eight-person class at the ninth induction celebration. “It means a lot to me. Moose Jaw is my hometown. Moose Jaw has been very good to me over the years.”
Cormier took part in his first powerlifting contest at the age of 14 as he embarked on a career that lasted 45 years, spanning across five decades.
His second hall of fame induction announcement was an opportunity to reflect on a decorated career.
“Sometimes we forget about the stats and the numbers and that, but at the press conference it was brought to my attention that between 1981 and 1999 I won more championships and set more records that any other lifter in Saskatchewan in the history of the sport. They did their homework. That was a feat that really hadn’t crossed my mind. I actually
have four national records that have been retired in 2010, they’ll never be beaten because they’re retired,” he explained.
There were many highlights for Cormier over the years.
“Making Team Canada five years in a row, that’s a difficult thing to do because there’s always a younger lifter coming and coming after you, coming after your records, and coming after your spot on the national team. So to be on the national team five years in a row and go to five world championships certainly that’s a highlight,” he noted.
Cormier was also the Saskatchewan Powerlifter of the Year in 1997 and 1998.
“Winning the bronze medal in 1998 at the Worlds in Atlanta, Georgia
after five previous, I was always in the topfive, I just couldn’t crack the top three. That was an accomplishment. I took some time off from work and university to focus primarily on the 98 Worlds, trained four to six hours a day, six days a week. I really focused in on the 98 Worlds because I had a feeling that the injuries were starting to pile up and so I knew this may be my last chance at a world championship. It paid off with a bronze medal. I narrowly got beat out of the silver by Tikhonov from Russia. He beat me on his last lift by two-and-a-half kilos, which is not a lot of weight. The difference between bronze and silver really doesn’t mean much to me as long as I’m on the platform.”
Among his other highlights was, at the age of 37, winning the Champion of Champions Cup as the number one overall lifter in Canada.
Cormier retired from competitive powerlifting in his mid-fifties.
“The sport of powerlifting was really good to me. It took me all over Canada, the United States, all over Western Europe, the United Kingdom. It was just a wonderful journey.”
He credited much of his success to the famed Pyles Gym in Moose Jaw.
“Pyles Gym, in 50 years, put out more national champions per capita than any other jurisdiction in North America. That’s in wrestling, boxing, powerlifting, weightlifting, judo. It was an old school gym. I’ll tell ya the coaching was old school, but they got the job done. I owe a lot to Dave Pyle and his son Bill Pyle, who coached me for most of my career.”
Cormier, who has lived in Swift Current since 2008, continues to stay active in the powerlifting world as a consultant.
“I’ll never be completely out of the sport,” he laughed.
Cormier is hoping that his contributions to the Saskatchewan and Canadian powerlifting scenes will be remembered well beyond his retirement from the sport.
“I want to be remembered as a good lifter for a long time. Over 45 years I was always there. I just didn’t show up because it was the thing to do, I always showed up to win and I was a good lifter for a long time. I wasn’t a great lifter. I don’t consider myself a great lifter, but I was a good lifter for a long time.”