Maude Charron

Biography

In her Olympic debut at Tokyo 2020, Maude Charron became just the second Canadian weightlifter to ever win an Olympic gold medal. Charron finished first in the women’s 64kg event after lifting a total weight of 236kg, four more than the silver medallist. She topped the standings in both the snatch (105kg) and clean & jerk (131kg) portions of the competition. 

In 2022, Charron won her second straight gold medal at the Commonwealth Games. She set Games records in the 64kg event for the snatch (101kg), clean and jerk (130kg), and total (231kg). Her body weight was two kilos less than it was at Tokyo 2020 as she had begun to transition down to the 59kg weight class after the 64kg event had been removed from the Olympic program for Paris 2024.  

Her first major international competition in the 59kg event was the 2022 IWF World Championships where she won bronze for her first career world championship medal. She lifted a total of 231kg after hoisting 103kg in the snatch and 128kg in the clean and jerk, all of which were national records for the weight class. A few months later she won 59kg gold at the 2023 Pan American Championships.

After suffering a knee injury in June, Charron opted not to compete at the 2023 IWF World Championships. She still participated in the weigh-in as it was an obligatory competition to be eligible for the 2024 Olympic Games. By October, she was healthy enough to compete at the Santiago 2023 Pan Am Games where she won the 59kg silver medal. A few weeks later, she won bronze at the IWF Grand Prix II, increasing her national record marks for the 59kg event as she lifted 233kg total (104kg snatch, 129kg clean and jerk).

Those records fell again in March 2024 as Charron won bronze at the IWF World Cup by lifting 236kg — the same total she had hoisted to win Olympic gold when she weighed 4.36kg more herself. She lifted 106kg in the snatch and 130kg in the clean and jerk.

Charron first stood on an international podium in 2016 when she won 63kg bronze at the World University Championships, just over a year after she first started weightlifting. After a bronze medal at the 2017 Pan American Championships, she turned heads in her debut at the IWF World Championships towards the end of 2017 when she placed second in the snatch portion of the competition and fifth overall. Charron had competed with the B group, the day before the A group that had all the top seeds. She sat and watched as five women asked for a snatch weight one kilogram more than she had lifted and all but one of them failed. Her total weight of 224kg was just one less than was lifted by the silver and bronze medallists.  

Charron kept her momentum going in 2018, winning 63kg gold at the Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast where she broke the Games record in the clean and jerk, lifting 122kg. She followed up with another gold at the 2018 World University Championships and then finished 10th at the IWF World Championships in the 64kg weight class. 

In 2019, Charron finished fourth in the 64kg event at the Pan Am Games in Lima and sixth at the IWF World Championships before capping the year with a gold medal at the IWF Grand Prix in Lima.  

In her lone international event in 2020, Charron won silver at the IWF World Cup in Rome. When competition resumed in 2021, she won gold at the Pan American Championships in April, breaking the continental records for the 64kg weight class in snatch (107kg), clean and jerk (133kg) and total (240kg).

A Little More About Maude

Getting into the Sport: Wanted to take up weightlifting when she was 7 after seeing it in a movie but her parents told her she was probably too short… Started doing CrossFit in 2013 after leaving circus school due to injuries… A weightlifting coach attended one of her practices and thought she had potential… Entered her first weightlifting competition in September 2015 and competed at her first nationals five months later… Early on she had no idea how much she was lifting in training because the weights were all in kilos and she only knew pounds from CrossFit… Outside Interests:  Would like to become a police officer after her weightlifting career; has finished the foundational work and training… Enjoys reading, doing puzzles, painting, mountain biking… Odds and Ends: Drinks coffee and maple syrup between her events at competitions… Collects flags from countries where she competes… Attended the Quebec Circus School for three years after being a young gymnast… Inspired by Christine Girard to continue to work hard as a clean athlete and push through in a sport in which doping is not unusual…