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Yukon weightlifter qualifies for the 2008 Beijing Olympics

After several competitions and months of waiting it's finally official: Yukoner Jeane Lassen will represent Canada at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.



THE WEIGHT OF THE WORLD - Yukon Weightlifter competes at the 2008 Canadian Championships this past weekend in Montreal.

After several competitions and months of waiting it’s finally official: Yukoner Jeane Lassen will represent Canada at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.

Lassen’s qualification, along with two other girls from Quebec, was finalized at the Canadian Championships, which were held this past weekend in Montreal.

“It was kind of unofficially official before the competition, but you always have to tell people, ‘It’s not over until it’s over’ and you don’t want to jinx yourself by saying it’s certain when there is still one formality left to go,” she said.

“Before, it was like ‘OK I have to do Pan American championships and I have to do nationals,’ but now it’s Beijing and that’s it.”

Lassen was a 12-year-old student at Porter Creek Secondary School when something she describes as “fate” introduced her to weightlifting. At the time she was doing a variety of other sports, such as basketball and volleyball, when it was suggested to her by weightlifting coach Wes Sullivan that she try the sport to help her become a better all-around athlete.

It didn’t take Lassen long to catch onto weightlifting. Not long after taking it up, she was able to develop a routine with her training.

However, it wasn’t until her first medal, which she won at the junior nationals at the age of 13, that Lassen began to take her involvement in the sport seriously.

Sullivan recognized her potential and suggested that she train for the following year’s Canada Games.

Lassen’s training paid off and she medalled once again at her second major competition.

Lassen was hooked and was competing on the world stage at the young age of 15 years old.

In 2000, Lassen, who was 19 years old, tried out for the Olympic team for the first time.

Unfortunately, a back injury contributed to her not being selected and provided Lassen with a tough life lesson at the same time.

Lassen started training again in 2003 and by the 2004 Games, was selected as a team alternate.

This year has been a highlight-filled season for Lassen, who, besides qualifying for the Olympics, has had numerous accomplishments.

These accomplishments include winning three gold medals at the Pan American Championships, which were held earlier in the season in Peru.

At the competition, Lassen lifted 103-kg in the snatch and 134-kg in the clean and jerk for a total of 237-kg in the 75-kg category.

Before the nationals, Lassen managed to break the Canadian women’s record in the 75-kg category by lifting 138-kg in the clean and jerk event at another Montreal hosted competition.

At the nationals, which were the final preliminary competition before the Olympic Games, Lassen broke another Canadian record in the 75-kg category by lifting 110-kg in the snatch category.

The record was previously 105-kg and on Lassen’s second lift in the snatch, she bested it by 2-kg, before going on to break her own record by lifting 110-kg.

The lift won her a gold medal at the event. Her overall total at the 2008 nationals was the most she has ever lifted during a competition in Canada.

What makes breaking the record even more incredible was the fact that Lassen was able to overcome a less than ideal situation that she was competing under in Montreal.

The main challenge was the fact that there were only six athletes in her session and one of the athletes ended up getting injured, which made things even more difficult.

Normally at weightlifting competitions, athletes are going up against around 12 to 15 individuals at a time, which allows them additional time in between lifts to rest up before their next lift.

Heading into the nationals, Lassen said her goal besides qualifying for the Games was to try out her new technique that she has been working on with coach Guy Greavette since the beginning of April.

“I have been working a lot on the snatch technique,” she said.

“We just wanted to go into a competition and not revert back to my old technique. That was the goal. Under stress, you do kind of revert back to your old habits and what really was cool was I didn’t do that. Competitions are kind of a way to get an indication if training is on the right track or not, so that was definitely an indication that we were doing things right.”

Before the Olympics, Lassen plans to do the majority of her training in Whitehorse, which will for the most part consist of three smaller training sessions a day.

The advantages to the smaller sessions will be they will allow Lassen to train about seven or eight hours a day, but in a manner that offers her enough time in between to recover.

She said she hopes to increase the amount of weight she can lift for Beijing in August.

“I would like to improve about eight kilos in each lift just to make things safe and that’s really ambitious,” Lassen said.

“I think if any weightlifters read that they would go ‘you are crazy,’ but they don’t know how good of a setup I have and it is very new that I have the perfect setup.”

Lassen said she attributes her success to the support she has been given.

“I just really have a great support team,” she said.

“There is so many people on my team that are helping me when I am out on the platform. I don’t feel alone and I really believe that it is such a sense of community. People tell me they are proud of me all the time. I am one of the luckiest athletes I think in Canada to have that. A lot of athletes don’t feel valued but I really do feel valued and I do feel like I want to make the Yukon proud.”

Although Lassen did so well at the nationals, she said her goals for Beijing of being in the best shape of her life and just giving it everything she has will remain the same.

Also representing the Yukon at the nationals was Emily Quarton. Quarton was a real wildcard at the competition and was the only other female in Montreal who had a legitimate shot of overtaking one of the three Canadian Olympic weightlifters.

Despite a great effort, which included a gold medal in the 58-kg category, Quarton just fell short of achieving her goal of qualifying for the Games.

However, she was selected as the first alternate and will attend the Olympics pending an injury to any one of the other Canadian female weightlifters.

Lassen said she was proud of how well Quarton did this season.

“Injury is a concern for all of athletes at this point,” she said.

“We are training so hard, we are all trying to push the limits without breaking. So for me, it’s a great comfort to know that if ever something did happen and I couldn’t live my dream of going to the Olympics the person that gets to go is Emily because she is a great athlete with a big heart and I respect her a lot. So if she were to take my place that would definitely make staying at home a lot easier.”