the essential
Based at the Jacques-Chirac complex in Montauban (Tarn-et-Garonne), the Montalban weightlifting club has 800 members this year, making it the largest in France in terms of membership. Quality is also present, with excellent results nationally.
A sharp, sharp noise slams through the room. It is the singular echo of a bar falling to the ground. Then a second, a third… And so on for more than an hour and a half.
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Around ten athletes devote themselves to their favorite discipline, under the watchful eyes of Simon Boucheres and Mathieu Thomarat, slightly behind to check everyone's technique.
800 members
Both are coaches at the Montalbanese Weightlifting Club (HCM) in Tarn-et-Garonne, the only weightlifting association in the department. The members arrive one by one, greeting each other fist to fist, sending the famous magnesia, this powder which prevents your hands from slipping on the steel bars, flying in a white cloud.
That evening, only a tiny part of the 800 HCM members will come to train. Because the club, created in 1967, has the largest number of licensees in France. And, a rare situation, which Simon and Mathieu cannot explain but which they positively underline, three quarters of these members are women.
Three-quarters of practitioners are… women
Enough to dismantle the prejudices about this sport requiring great mental strength. For Mathieu Thomarat, “it's a challenging sport, very mentally difficult. The boys also have a hard time seeing girls lift heavier than them…”, he slips.
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Mathieu steps away for a moment to correct the posture of an athlete who is performing a series of squats. Meanwhile, Simon speaks with pride of the potential of the club's young athletes. Youenn Personnic is one of them. Last season, he won the title of French U20 champion in – 81kg. Now he is a senior. The time for the big leap has come.
Seven national medals last season
Ilona Coppin is also a promising weightlifter among the U15s. Still a beginner, she has it under her belt according to her coaches. “We think she can get the French team,” whispers Simon.
“The Olympic Games have done us a disservice”
With a little bitterness in his voice, Simon Boucheres talks about the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. With the enthusiasm they generated, those responsible for the HCM could expect a resurgence in popularity. With a number of licensees that should have exploded…
Should have, since that was not the case for weightlifting in France. The discipline's few specialist media were deprived of its coverage after Eurosport
purchased the entire rights to the discipline. But according to Simon, communication about the events was minimal since “no one was able to watch weightlifting” on the pay channel.
Young people have moved towards more publicized sports, such as table tennis, which benefited from the sudden popularity of the Lebrun brothers, or
rugby for example, with the Olympic title of the French Sevens team. “The Olympics have done us a disservice,” Simon complains. The story of a missed opportunity.
And these are not the only talents, since the club counts on several women in particular, in seniors, who reach the national minimums: Perrine Cadoni, Marilou Lalloyeau and Manon Salelles, the latter going back and forth between the reception and the room training to guide new arrivals, all smiles.
An organization of French championships?
Casually, Simon mentions the fact that the club won seven medals in national finals out of thirteen Montalban participants in the 2023-2024 season. This has even risen to sixteen since 2020. Very good performances which push the club, whose facilities were renovated in the heart of the Jacques-Chirac sports complex four years ago.
So much so that the HCM plans to host senior French championships in the coming years. The facilities are, in any case, ready for this: numerous platforms, new equipment in quantity and, obviously, a structured club.
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