Pierre St-Jean

In his youth, Pierre St-Jean spent time at the Palestre Nationale, a venerable French-Canadian amateur athletic institution in Montréal, where his father Lionel had been a weightlifting instructor since the mid-1940s. Though Pierre began weightlifting when he was just eight years old, he was also always on hand with his mother and sister to help his father run weightlifting competitions.

By the time Pierre St-Jean joined the Canadian national weightlifting team in 1962, he already had 10 years of training under his belt. He immediately rose to the top of his sport in Canada when he lifted a total of 365 kg in the 75-kg class. At the Commonwealth Games in Perth, Australia in November of that same year, he finished second in his class. At age 19, he set a new British and world junior record when he successfully lifted 147.27 kg in the clean-and-jerk. Five months after having set this world record, he took a bronze medal in the Pan American Games in São Paulo, Brazil.

St-Jean’s brilliant performances in 1962 and 1963 earned him the Viscount Alexander Trophy, which the Amateur Athletic Union of Canada presents to the outstanding junior competitor in any amateur sports event.

In 1964, St-Jean competed in his first Olympic Games, in Tokyo, where he came in 13th. Two years later, he won a gold medal at the Commonwealth Games in Kingston, Jamaica. He returned to international competition in 1967, when he finished third in the Pan American Games in Winnipeg and was again selected for the Olympic team. At the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico, he came in 10th in the 82.5-kg class.

After having competed in two Olympic Games, two Pan American Games, two Commonwealth Games and a world championship, the Québec athlete announced his retirement. But it took him a few years to make good on his word—in 1970, he was there at the Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh, where he won a bronze medal.

In 1973, St-Jean was invited to come out of retirement so that he would be able to compete in the Montréal Olympics in 1976. In May 1976, he became Canadian champion again in the 82.5 kg weight class. As a result of this performance, he qualified to compete participate in his third Olympic Games, in Montréal, a few months later.

To honour St-Jean for his illustrious career, the Organizing Committee for the Montréal Olympic Games asked him to take the Olympic oath on behalf of all the athletes at the Opening Ceremony. But in the weightlifting competition, the 33-year-old St-Jean failed in three attempts to lift 150 kg in the snatch and was thus disqualified. He then retired from the sport permanently.

In 1969, St-Jean was inducted into the Canadian Olympic Hall of Fame. Much later, in 1997, the most successful weightlifter that the Palestre Nationale had ever produced was inducted into the Québec Sports Hall of Fame.