Skip to content

LIVE: B.C. Olympian Christine Girard to receive long-delayed medals

Olympian in Ottawa this morning to officially be given gold medal from 2012 Games, bronze from ‘08
14627907_web1_Christine-Girard-web
Christine Girard holds her bronze medal from 2012, which has now been officially upgraded to gold. (File photo)

Six months after it became official, Olympic weightlifter Christine Girard is finally set to receive her proper medals.

The longtime Semiahmoo Peninsula resident and member of Langley-based Kilophile Weightlifting Club - who originally from Quebec - is in Ottawa this morning to officially receive gold and bronze Olympic medals.

Girard learned back in April that her bronze medal from the 2012 Summer Olympics in London - won in the women’s 63-kg division - was officially upgraded to gold after the two finishers ahead of her on the podium, Kazakhstan’s Maiya Maneza and Russia’s Svetlana Tsurukaeva, respectively – were discovered to have tested positive for banned substances, leaving Girard as the only clean athlete left from the original trio of podium finishes.

Prior to that news, Girard’s fourth-place finish from the 2008 Olympics had already been bumped to bronze - again, due to doping of athletes ahead of her - but she had never actually received the medal.

Today, she will receive both in a special ceremony. The event is to be live-streamed by CBC (see below).

More to come…