Sudbury female powerlifter dominates Special Olympics World Games

A Sudbury, Ont., woman has just added four more gold medals to her collection competing in her second Special Olympics World Summer Games in Berlin and dominating the female powerlifting competition.

Josée Seguin is from the Val Therese area of Greater Sudbury and has been involved with the Special Olympics for 15 years.

"Special Olympics has changed my life because it has made (me) more outgoing and a lot less shy," Seguin said in her athlete profile.

"My proudest moment was going to my first World Games back in 2019 and having the opportunity to wear the Canadian flag and represent my country, my hometown on the world stage."

She lives with cerebral palsy, epilepsy and a vision impairment, but doesn't let that stop her.

"I like that even though it is a more male-dominated sport, it doesn’t mean that women can’t do it. You just have to be willing to work hard and you can do just as well as anyone," Seguin said.

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In the 2019 games held in Dubai, she won three gold medals in powerlifting – deadlift, bench press and combined squat, bench press and deadlift – and a silver for her squat in the F12 division.

This time around, at the games in Berlin, she has won first place in all four categories in the F06 division, surpassing her goals for both the squat and deadlift.

Her squat goal was 225 pounds and her best attempt was 253, 50 lbs more than the second-place competitor from China and more than double the third-place finisher from Bharat. This allowed her to earn her first gold medal for the squat.

Not only did she deadlift nearly twice her body weight, but Seguin also surpassed her goal of 305 lbs by three. She also bested her Chinese counterpart, who won second place, by 77 lbs and the third-place finisher from Algeria by 138 lbs.

Seguin earned gold in the bench press with her best attempt of 132 lbs., double the second-place competitor from Pakistan and triple the fourth-place competitor from Bharat.

Finally, all of these first-place finishes earned her gold in the women's combined squat, bench press and deadlift.

The games in Berlin end with closing ceremonies on Sunday and Seguin will return to Canada with her new hardware.

With files from CTV News Sudbury video journalist Amanda Hicks.