Yukon weightlifter has Beijing Olympic Games in sight

Canada will send three female weightlifters to the 2008 Olympic Games, and if Emily Quarton has anything to do with it, the Yukon will represent the majority of the team.
Quarton, 23, is currently in the first alternate position on the team, but there is still a strong chance of her moving into third after the final qualifying competition in May to join fellow Yukoner and Olympic hopeful Jean Lassen in the top three.
Quarton’s qualification depends on both her performance and the results posted by the third place athlete at the nationals.

Going into the event, she only trails her by roughly 2.2 per cent, which means she must improve by around 5-kg.
“The nice thing is I am safe in fourth,“ she said.

“So it’s between me and the girl that is in third.

I’m the only one that has a chance of bumping her out of that spot, so right now there are three girls on the team and I have a chance at messing that up, I guess you could say.“
Quarton, who trains and goes to school in Montreal, took up the sport in 2000 as a result of her involvement in gymnastics.

Her coach at the time suggested that she might be good at it and eventually persuaded Quarton into giving it a try as an alternative to gymnastics.

Not only was Quarton good at it, but she immediately discovered a love and passion for weightlifting.
Initially, Quarton just wanted to train and had no intention of competing, but her first real competition changed all of that.

It was held in White Rock, B.C., and she lifted around 32-kg in the snatch and 50-kg in the clean and jerk.

Quarton finished in first place at the event and said she was hooked with the competition aspect from that point on. 
Within a year and a half she was competing at the 2002 world junior championships, which were held in Mexico.

From there she continued to improve at the sport.

Quarton credits some of her success in weightlifting to her 10-year involvement in gymnastics, which help benefit her in areas such as body awareness, work ethic, speed and agility.
“They all help, hugely,“ she said.

“I don’t want to sound like a spokesperson for gymnastics, but it is a good base for any sport.

There are more than one gymnasts who became really good weightlifters.“
In 2003, while competing on the Canadian team at the Pan American Championships, Quarton helped qualify fellow teammate Maryse Turcotte for the Sydney Olympics. Qualification was based on the results at the competition.
This year, the Canadian female weightlifting team was able to qualify three Olympians as a result of their placing at the world championships, held earlier in 2007.

This is the largest female weightlifting team Canada has ever sent in the sport.
Quarton’s personal highlight in weightlifting came at the 2006 Commonwealth Games.

At the event she won a silver medal in Melbourne Australia.

She said if she qualifies for the Olympic team it would be a new highlight in the sport.
“I think for most athletes, that is the biggest goal: to make the Olympics and then do well there,“ Quarton said.

“To me, the Commonwealth Games was just an amazing experience. The girl’s team won the best female team award and we all won medals. It was just a great time in that sense and so to me to make the Olympic Games, it’s like that, but that much more because it’s the whole world. It’s kind of what everyone dreams of and I expected to be shooting for this in 2012, so for me I don’t have much to lose. I am four years ahead of where I expected to be and I am not going to give up because of that. I am just going to give it all I’ve got and hope for the best and see what happens.“
This season, Quarton had to overcome her toughest challenge to date in the sport when a back injury sidelined her for four months.

The injury happened in March and forced Quarton to reevaluate her future in weightlifting. 

She said she learned a lot about the importance of not overtraining.
“I learned a lot about listening to my body and it’s not always worth pushing,“ Quarton said.

“The whole ‘no pain, no gain,‘ I am not quite sure I agree with that.

If you are not recovered, you put so much at risk and it’s not worth it to me anymore.
It is more about longevity in the sport, I think, than about pushing.

There are so many athletes that push, push, push and they get really good really fast, but then a year later you don’t hear from them again.

I don’t want that. I want to be able to compete and go to different competitions.“
Quarton said there was a combination of things that benefitted her recovery, including the work done with physiotherapists to strengthen the muscles around her injury, which helped in both recovery and preventing a re-aggravation.
Quarton also waited an appropriate amount of time and by October she was able to resume competition in the sport.
At the event in the fall, Quarton achieved a personal best total and then just a week later, she improved that number by 2-kg in another competition.

Her score was so good that she was able to avoid taking part in an event in December without losing any ground in the Olympic qualification.
Her last competition was in March and Quarton got off to a great start by lifting 90-kg in the snatch, which nearly equalled the Canadian female record of 90.5-kg.

Lifting 90-kg improved upon her previous best total in a competition by 4-kg.
Unfortunately, her next lift using the clean and jerk technique wasn’t as successful and she ended up missing her first attempt at 105-kg.

After successfully lifting it on her second try, she attempted 110-kg, but wasn’t able to complete the lift.
Quarton, who can do 113-kg in training, said her goal for nationals is to lift 113-kg to 115-kg in the clean and jerk.

Quarton is confident about being able to reach this goal.

She said physically, she has never been in better shape and the work she has done with Yukon sports psychologist Tracy Bilsky has also been a great benefit.
Quarton said despite living in Montreal, she appreciates the support given to her in the Yukon throughout the years. 
“It’s motivating to know that people care,“ she said. “It’s a special thing to be from the Yukon and a small town where everyone knows everyone.

It definitely motivates me to keep going when there is some tough moments and it’s nice to know that you can always come home.

People might be a little more proud of you if you do well, but in the big scheme of things, they are still going to be proud of you either way.“