Weightlifter wins national championship

J.D. Potié
Edmonton Jan. 18, 2019
As of Jan. 18, a Pontiac teenager can call himself the national junior weightlifting champion after taking home the gold medal in the 89 kg category during the Canadian Junior Weightlifting Championships (CJWC) in Edmonton, Alta.
For 16-year-old weightlifting phenom from Fort Coulonge, Xavier Lusignan, winning the gold as one of the competition’s youngest competitors didn’t come as a big surprise.
“I knew, this year, that I would win,” he said. “There was no doubt.”
Confident heading into the competition, Lusignan knew that if he completed all his attemps the way he expected, he would come out on top in the end and maybe beat a personal best while he was at it.
“I wanted to lower my opening attempt and do bigger jumps, so that I would make sure that I would get a bigger total and secure the gold medal,” he said. “My expectations were to beat my personal record because I knew I was capable.”
“I knew automatically I was going to win,” he added.
Lifting a lofty 118 kg. in the snatch, Lusignan broke his old record of 109 kg., which he had set at the Ontario Junior Provincial Weightlifting Championship six weeks before the CJWC.
He explained that the qualifying standards were lower than the previous year. It made him feel good about his chances of taking home the gold, noting how much progress he had made with an extra year of training.
“The athletes, every year, they don’t always do the same numbers,” he said. “It always changes. They were pretty close. But last year, my numbers weren’t as high. I was doing 103-snatch and I was doing 130 clean and jerk. This year, I was way above that.”
Olympic weightlifting competitions involve athletes in different division participating in two disciplines – the snatch and the clean and jerk.
Typically, athletes are judged based on their maximum lifts in each respective discipline as well as their overall total.
In the 2020 CJWC, athletes had three attempts in each discipline to get the highest overall weight in both – which Lusignan won despite missing one of his clean and jerk attempts.
Representing the Ontario Weightlifting Association, Lusignan trains at the Kanama High Performance North (KHPN) Olympic weightlifting facility in Pembroke.
While he qualified for last year’s national championship in Brossard, Que., he turned down the opportunity because he didn’t feel confident in his abilities of coming out with favourable results.
“I thought I didn’t have any chance of winning,” he said.
As a fierce competitor, Lusignan wasn’t interested in travelling three and half hours East of the province only to only come out with a participation ribbon.
“I didn’t really want to go,” he said. “When I go to competitions, I want to make sure that I place at least third, especially for a competition this big.”
Originally from Campbell’s Bay, Lusignan has lived in Fort Coulonge since moving there last year and is currently in secondary five at l’Ecole Secondaire Sieur de Coulonge (ESSC) in Mansfield et Pontefract.
The gold medal is currently displayed in Lusignan’s bedroom. But he intends on showcasing it at KHPN to hopefully motivate other athletes to work hard and tackle their goals.
“I want to inspire a lot of people,” he said. “That’s my goal.”
Lusignan’s love for weightlifting began at age 10, when he and his father, Sylvain, discovered a weightlifting gym at a gymnastics facility in Pembroke.
“It’s not a sport that everyone knows about,” he said. “It’s not a sport that everyone can do. I had a connection with the sport.”
At 12 years-old, Lusignan participated in his first ever weightlifting competition in North Bay where he placed second (out of two competitors) and has competed in provincial events for the last four years.
Reflecting on the accomplishment – taking gold in his first ever junior national championship - Lusignan admitted that it hasn’t exactly sunk in yet, noting that he feels grateful for the progress he’s made thus far.
“It’s unbelievable that I’ve reached this,” he said. “It’s one of the first steps of my career and being a national champion is something that not everyone can do.”
Whether it was winning the gold, travelling to a competition by plane for the first time or meeting all sorts of great athletes from across the nation, Lusignan’s time in Edmonton was almost perfect.
“When we landed the plane, I realized that this was going to be the first of many,” he said. “I benefitted from this experience. It was a great experience. I met new people. The hotel was great. I don’t have anything to complain about. Except, it’s really far.”
Looking at his rapid rise in the sport, Lusignan knows that his success is largely a product of mental determination and physical dedication.
“I train every week, sometimes every day,” he said. “I always work on my mind because people forget that it’s more like 70 per cent mental and 30 per cent physical. If you’re not there in your mind, if you doubt yourself, it’s already game over. You won’t do it.”
“I don’t doubt myself,” he added. “I know what I can do and I know my limits. If there’s something I know I can do, there’s no doubt that I can do it. Your mind plays tricks on you. You just need to deal with it and work with it.”
Despite the thrill of winning, he isn’t satisfied quite yet, noting that he looks forward to defending his national junior title next year and that he aspires to compete in the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, among other things.
“I want more,” he said. “I’m a competitive person. I want to continue this sport and I want to evolve and be something greater. That would be a great opportunity for me to showcase my skills to the world.”