2011 SU Update: Olympian, Trio of Commonwealth Games Medallists highlight Canadian Weightlifting Selection

OTTAWA – Canadian Interuniversity Sport announced Friday the 10 student-athletes who will represent Canada in weightlifting at the 26th Summer Universiade in Shenzhen, China.

The Shenzhen weightlifting competition will mark the sport’s Universiade debut.

To mark the occasion, Canada is sending an all-Quebec contingent of four female and six male athletes to China including an Olympian, a trio of Commonwealth Games medallists and four reigning senior national champions.

On the women’s side, Marilou Dozois-Prévost of Candiac and Jessica Ruel of Macamic will both compete in the 53-kilogram weight class, while Marie-Ève Beauchemin-Nadeau of Candiac and Andréanne M. Cyr of La Prairie will battle at 69 and 75 kg, respectively.

Highlighting the selection is Dozois-Prévost, the Canadian champion at 53 kg. The 25-year-old University of Quebec at Montreal (UQAM) psychology student claimed 53-kg gold at the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi, India. She also represented Canada at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, where she finished 10th at 48 kg, as well as at the 2009 and 2010 world championships, where she placed 12th and 14th, respectively, at 53 kg.

Ruel, a graduate of Cegep of Abitibi-Témiscamingue, finished second behind Dozois-Prévost at the 2011 Nationals. The four-time Canadian junior champion was ninth at the 2009 junior world championships in Romania and captured silver at the 2008 Commonwealth Youth Games in India.

Beauchemin-Nadeau, a medicine student at the University of Sherbrooke, is also the reigning Canadian champion in her category (69 kg). She claimed silver at 75 kg at the last Commonwealth Games and also wore the Maple Leaf at the world championships in 2009 (12th at 69 kg) and 2010 (13th at 75 kg).

Representing Canada in the Universiade men’s tournament will be Philippe Bibeau-Villiard of La Prairie (69 kg), Mathieu Poirier of St-Georges-de-Beauce (69 kg), Laurent Goyette-Demers of Montreal (77 kg), Michaël Théberge of St-Hyacinthe (77 kg), Mathieu Marineau of St-Jérôme (85 kg) and Pascal Plamondon of Sherbrooke (85 kg).

Goyette-Demers and Marineau are the reigning Canadian champions at 77 and 85 kg, respectively, while Bibeau-Villiard (silver 69 kg), Poirier (bronze 69 kg), Théberge (silver 77 kg) and Plamondon (bronze 77 kg) also reached the podium at the 2011 Nationals.

Goyette-Demers, who attends Lindenwood University in Saint Charles, Missouri, was crowned NAIA champion this season and has extensive experience at the international level including a pair of FISU world university championship appearances in 2008 (8th at 85 kg) and 2010 (bronze 77kg), as well as the Pan American championships (11th at 77 kg) and world junior championships (10th at 77 kg) in 2008. 

Marineau captured 85-kg bronze as an 18-year-old at the 2010 Commonwealth Games.

Théberge represented Canada at the 2010 junior world championships in Bulgaria.

Guy Marineau of St-André-d’Argenteuil, Que., and René Bellemarre of Macamic will coach the red and white delegation is Shenzhen.

The inaugural Universiade weightlifting competition is scheduled for August 13-18. 

(Source: Michel Bélanger, CIS Manager Communications & Media Relations)