Canadian weightlifter credits crowd for boosting him to podium

So weightlifting is just picking things up and putting them back down again, right?

• Pan Am Games pressure can be too much for some athletes

Don't tell that to the crowd at the Oshawa Sports Centre.

It was a quiet Wednesday afternoon bunch until Brazilian Mateus Filipe Gregorio Machado had his first attempt in the men's 105 kg category. Firing his arms in the air and flexing his muscles after completing his first attempt of 167 kg, the crowd only got louder with each attempt. You could feel his intensity from the press box.

"It was a hard competition," said Machado. "It was like a fight."

But it was his challenger, Venezuela's Jesus Gonzalez Barrios, who really amped up the people as he and Machado jockeyed for the leading weight total. Barrios wasn't shy of the crowd either as he routinely let out his emotion, on good and bad attempts, falling to his knees in victory after his last lift of 210 kg to secure gold over Machado.

"Everyone was cheering and encouraging me," said Barrios. I was prepared and determined to get the gold medal and to go to Rio (Olympics)."

On the women's side, with no Canadians in the +75 kg category, it was American Holley Mangold who received the loudest cheers. Even in a disappointing fifth-place finish, Mangold appreciated the support especially after she took a hard fall attempting a Pan Am games record lift of 154 kg.

"That was amazing," said Mangold. "I probably wouldn't have stood up without them."

But when it comes to crowd noise, it was all about the big boys: the +105 kg division.

Fans were like Red Bull

Canadian George Kobaladze had the crowd on their feet along with Pan Am record breaker Fernando Reis of Brazil, who broke all three of his own Pan Am records scoring a total weight of 427 kg. 

Kobaladze was the sole Canadian competing in weightlifting on Wednesday, but he found the podium. The 39-year-old joined bronze medallist Francis Luna-Grenier as the only Canadian weightlifting medallists, snatching a silver medal with a total weight lifted of 376 kg.

"The fans gave me wings, like Red Bull," laughed Kobaldze after the contest. 

Craig Walker, a vice president of the Canadian Weightlifting Federation, is familiar with this type of atmosphere and credits the sport itself.

"[Weightlifting] is one of the few sports that, when you step onto the platform to perform, every judge, everyone in the audience, every coach and every other athlete wants you to succeed," said Walker between competitions. "They want you to make that lift and there's a real positive energy that comes out of that."