PARIS– A burly weightlifter lifts a barbell weighing more than 300 pounds (135 kilograms) and quickly drops it to the ground, followed by applause from the crowd. Before another contestant can go up, a handful of people sitting nearby run up the stairs and onto the stage to restart.
They remove the discs and screw in new ones on each side, clean the bar and reposition it in the perfect spot. Every few tries, someone clears the platform as if it were a basketball court. Weight attempts change quickly mid-competition, so they are constantly asked to make various adjustments.
Weightlifting would not be possible in Paris 2024 Olympics or anywhere else without porters, who perform a similar role to pit crews changing tires and refueling race cars. It’s an essential and quick task to ensure the bar weighs what it’s supposed to weigh – quickly – and that conditions are optimal for the world’s best lifters to do what they’ve spent the last four years training for.
“The priority is to stay calm because if you are not calm, you will rush and make a lot of mistakes,” porter Jessy Graillot told The Associated Press on Thursday. “We have to remain calm and communicate a lot with the team. We all have work to do and we know what to do.”
Graillot is one of 14 porters at the Paris Games, all from the French under-23 and under-20 weightlifting teams. Many of them went through a test event to get an idea of the responsibilities and the the entire mixed group divided equally between seven men and seven women had two hours of training before weightlifting began on Wednesday.
“We just practiced how to load the bar, what are some of the protocols that we have to follow so that everything is perfect and it looks perfect too, because it’s the Olympics, so everything needs to be in order,” said loader Lea Marie Antonio. “They told us there have been no mistakes since London 2012, so no mistakes have been made loading the bars at the Olympics since 2012. I think if we don’t make any mistakes we can call it a good night.”
Avoiding mistakes at a major international event brings with it some natural stress, but Laurène Fauvel doesn’t consider it pressure. Her biggest problem is when she and her fellow porters are criticized by Olympic lifters or fans on social media when someone slips.
“Some athletes or the public say, ‘Oh, the porters aren’t cleaning well,’” Fauvel said. “It’s only 1% of the public, but it’s sad to have that feedback.”
Slipping was a problem on the first day of weightlifting, Hampton Morris said after becoming the first US man to win an Olympic medal in the sport for 40 years, but he said the painting of the Paris 2024 logo was the problem. Nothing the shippers can do about it.
They’re not winning medals, but they have a sense of whether they’re doing a good job at any given moment.
“I think it’s a feeling,” Graillot, 21, said. “When we make mistakes, when we are in a hurry, we don’t feel confident. When we feel confident, I think it’s a success.”
Getting here is already a victory and it is an experience that the French Weightlifting Federation wants them to have seeing the Olympics up close. Fauvel enjoys watching the lifters’ rituals and learned more about the rules and by talking to experienced jury members who have been judging events for decades.
“They wanted us to really see what it’s like to be at the Olympics and what we work for, actually, so that’s why they asked us to be part of the team,” said Antonio, a 19-year-old from eastern France.
Graillot, who trains alongside Antonio, sees parallels with motorsport pit crews – with a greater dose of patience to get it right.
“Maybe we can compare because we’re a team and we all have a job to do,” he said. “But it’s much calmer. We don’t need to rush like in racing.”
It’s important work, but also fun for French weightlifters who hope to one day – perhaps in Los Angeles in 2028 or Brisbane in 2032 – be at the Olympics themselves. Yamm Thomasson said of the time that has passed: “C’est magnifique”.
“You feel all the chemistry of the Olympics,” Thomasson said in French with interpretation by Graillot. “It’s a beautiful opportunity. It’s once in a lifetime.”
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