DEVELOPING Latest updates on the major wildfires burning in Canada
The 2024 wildfire season has begun, and it's shaping up to follow last year's unprecedented destruction in kind, with thousands of square kilometres already consumed.
Canadian weightlifter Maude Charron made sure that, at least in some way, Christine Girard was able to be part of the experience that comes with winning an Olympic gold medal.
Charron won gold in the women's 64-kilogram event on Tuesday, and she spoke of what it means to follow in the footsteps of Girard, one of the sport's trailblazers.
"She's like my idol," Charron said. "When I won my first Canadian national championship, she was the one who gave me my gold medal. I was like 'Oh my god, that's Christine Girard! And I'm still: 'Oh my god, that's Christine Girard talking to me."'
Girard won Canada's first ever weightlifting gold medals at the 2012 London Olympics. But she was denied her Olympic championship moment. Originally awarded a bronze, Girard wouldn't receive the medal she rightfully earned until years later, after the London gold and silver medallists were eventually stripped of their medals for doping infractions.
"Now I just feel like that's her medal, that's her moment, because she didn't have it in real time," Charron said. "So this is just a medal and a moment due to Canada."
Charron from Rimouski, Que., put the finishing touches on her medal with a successful lift of 131 kilograms on her third and final clean and jerk attempt.
Charron also had the highest score in the snatch phase, lifting 105 kilograms. Her total of 236 points over the two phases was four better than silver medallist Giorgia Bordignon of Italy.
Wen-Huei Chen of Taiwan finished third.
"Everyone does their thing, and if the bar falls, the bar falls," Charron said. "That's the game, that's the play, that's the sport -- you miss or you make it.:
The 28-year-old lifted her hands in triumph as she climbed the podium and appeared to wipe away tears as the Canadian anthem played.
"Actually I don't remember, I was just crying and I didn't realize what happened," she said with a laugh.
"I thought about my grandmother because once she told me she'd like me to sing the Canadian anthem, so I sang it -- but on the podium at the Olympics."
The weightlifter, who had once gone to circus school and dreamt of being a gymnast, said going into the Games that her goal was to give her best performance.
However, she had already established herself as a medal contender earlier this year when she won gold at the Pan American Championships in April, breaking three records on her way.
And her recent success came without having a gym to train at due to COVID-19.
"My gym in Quebec closed so I had to take my stuff -- my bar and my plates -- to my dad's garage," she said. "I trained there for a whole year along with my dog.
"It was fine, I just picture myself there in my peaceful place and it puts me in the right mood."
Charron's gold is Canada's second of the games after swimmer Maggie Mac Neil won the women's 100-metre butterfly on Monday.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 27, 2021.
The 2024 wildfire season has begun, and it's shaping up to follow last year's unprecedented destruction in kind, with thousands of square kilometres already consumed.
Veteran TSN broadcaster Darren 'Dutch' Dutchyshen, one of Canada’s best-known sports journalists, has died. He was 57. His family says 'he passed as he was surrounded by his closest loved ones.'
A ‘lifetime of abuse’ led Dallas Ly to snap and repeatedly stab his mother inside their Leslieville apartment in 2022 but he never intended to kill her, his defence lawyers argued during his murder trial in Toronto on Thursday.
A burgeoning track star says his dream of going to the Olympics is being derailed by a deportation order after Immigration officials rejected his family’s claim for asylum
A father has been charged with second-degree murder in the stabbing death of his 34-year-old daughter in southern Quebec.
A medical examiner says a Massachusetts teen who participated in a spicy tortilla chip challenge died from ingesting a substance 'with a high capsaicin concentration.'
A Montreal father who kidnapped his daughter who has autism and lied to police when they asked where she was should serve three years in prison, a Crown prosecutor said.
The province’s health minister and solicitor general are urging Toronto to rescind its request to decriminalize simple possession of small amounts of drugs for personal use, calling the proposal 'misguided' and 'disastrous.'
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau assailed New Brunswick's premier and other conservative leaders on Thursday, calling out the provincial government's position on abortion, LGBTQ youth and climate change.
A Starbucks fan — whose name is Winter — is visiting Canada on a purposeful journey that began with a random idea at one of the coffee chain's stores in Texas.
Members of Piapot First Nation, students from the University of Winnipeg and various other professionals are learning new techniques that will hopefully be used for ground searches of potential unmarked grave sites in the future.
ALS patient Mathew Brown said he’s hopeful for future ALS patients after news this week of research at Western University of a potential cure for ALS.
When Adam Kirschner wrote 'Slap Shot,' he never imagined the song would be embraced by his favourite team.
A team is ready to help an entangled North Atlantic right whale in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
A $200 reward is being offered by a North Vancouver family for the safe return of their beloved chicken, Snowflake.
Two daughters and a mother were reunited online 40 years later thanks to a DNA kit and a Zoom connection despite living on three separate continents and speaking different languages.
Mother's Day can be a difficult occasion for those who have lost or are estranged from their mom.
YES Theatre Young Company opened its acclaimed kids’ show, One Small Step, at Sudbury Theatre Centre on Saturday.