This Christmas will be as good as gold for Chantal Leduc after all.
The Barrie armwrestler is ecstatic after finding out that she is now a world champion.
Leduc initially came away from the WAF World Armwrestling Championship — held in early October in Kuala Lampur, Malaysia — with a silver medal after dropping her 80-kilogram women’s master final to South Africa’s Berdene Mulder.
That decision has been overturned and Leduc named the winner after it was recently announced that Mulder had failed a drug test taken after her win.
Leduc, who is waiting for the medal exchange, is hoping it happens before the holiday season. After all, what a Christmas gift a gold medal would make.
“It’d be pretty sweet, eh?” said the thrilled 42-year-old, who found out the news from Canadian Armwrestling Federation president Rick Pinkney. “It’s been so many years in the making. I love it. I absolutely love it.”
Leduc already has a place picked out to put the medal.
“Around my neck,” she said with a chuckle. “I’m really going to have to look at it. I’ve had other gold medals. I have 12 national titles that I’m very, very proud of. I have provincial titles that I am very proud of.
“Tackling the world scene is a whole different ball game,” Leduc added. “You have no idea who is coming at you.”
Not only is the world title special, with it being her first after five previous attempts, but for Leduc it’s that much more rewarding knowing the work, time and money she had put into her training and that she had done it all as a clean athlete.
“There’s no feeling like that,” said Leduc, who had to wait for Mulder to be first notified before getting the news of her win. “I don’t condone doping at all, but I can only control me and training clean is the best feeling for me.
“I appreciate more all the work that goes into it because of that, because it’s me 100%.”
Leduc said she is happy that justice was done in this case and hopes that continues in her sport. All sports, in general, are looking more closely at this and becoming more tenacious in their efforts to catch cheaters.
“I hope it never becomes a cultural norm,” Leduc said of doping. “I hope we’re always looking to keep competitive sports as clean as possible, if not completely. I think it’s gotten to the point where it’s going to take a lot of work, a lot of effort to reverse that wheel.”
Leduc has so many people to thank for having helped her along the way, but none more so than her trainer Roman Svoboda.
“I didn’t know what more I could learn until I met Roman,” she said. “Then all of a sudden I was really transformed as an athlete.”
Leduc said she can’t wait until she gets her gold medal. She says when you have that drive and determination, nothing, not even age, can stop you.
She put in the effort. Did what she had to, to get the job done.
“It’s been such a long time coming, but it feels right in my bones,” said Leduc, who has been competing for 18 years. “It just feels right.”
Courtesy of: The Barrie Examiner