White Rock weightlifter to win Olympic gold 5 years after competing

Christine Girard struggles to describe her emotions after getting the news that she will likely, and finally, be crowned Olympic champion after two weightlifters who finished ahead of her at the 2012 London Olympics were officially disqualified for doping.

"It's exciting," she conceded, "because it's finally going to happen."

"But it's interesting too."

Both gold medalist Maiya Maneza of Kazakhstan and Russian silver medalist Svetlana Tzarukaeva have now been stripped of their medals, bumping Girard up from bronze to top spot almost five years after they all went head-to-head in the 63 kilogram class in London.

"Until recently, I thought the bronze medal ceremony in London was one of the best moments of my life. But it can't be anymore," said Girard from her White Rock home. 

Cheated out of money and glory

The 37-year-old is also awaiting confirmation that her fourth place at the 2008 Beijing Olympics will be upgraded to a bronze medal pending another doping disqualification of a different Kazakh lifter. 

She says it's impossible to quantify how much she lost as a result of being cheated out of the medals.

"I'm not a material girl but I think about how my life would have been different. From fourth place to a medal [in Beijing] is huge. Those four years leading up to London, I would have had so much more support. I mean, I was training in a carport that was barely heated."

"In Beijing, I would have been the first medal for Canada. I think we had our first medal on day seven and I had competed on day four. It would have been huge for me and my sport."

"And even now as a coach, my name would have been so much better known," she said.

"When I think about it, I get a little upset."

Girard says she keeps her bronze medal from London somewhere in a closet. 

"I'm pretty sure I'll do something else with the gold," she laughed.

'Proud to be Canadian'

Despite the overwhelming number of doping scandals in her sport, Girard firmly believes the tide is finally turning in favour of clean athletes who come from countries like Canada.

"In all my career, I was never offered any drugs," she said. "It's meaningful because in other countries [weightlifters]  just have to take whatever they are given.

"When I started competing internationally, I could see females change every year in a way that couldn't be natural. One year they have a mustache and the next they have a full beard.

"I can't say enough how proud I am to be Canadian, from a country that puts money to fight doping, not towards hiding it like some other countries."

Girard says no decisions have been made about where or when she will finally get her gold medal.