O, Canada: Two-time Olympic medalist Maude Charron relied on the sticky, sugary delectability of maple syrup during the 2024 Olympics.

Charron, 31, was seen sipping on a packet of syrup moments before securing a silver medal during the culmination of the Women’s 59-kilogram weightlifting event.

[Related: 2024 Olympics Weightlifting Results + Schedule]

Is this standard practice for the strongest women athletes at the Olympic Games? No. Well, sort of. We’ll let a registered dietitian, plus one of Charron’s former teammates, explain.

Does Maple Syrup Help Weightlifters?

Weightlifting is a two-exercise sport. Athletes like Charron compete against each other to lift the most weight in two barbell exercises — the snatch and the clean & jerk — that involve moving the bar to the floor to arm’s length overhead.

To win a weightlifting event at the Olympics, you need to add your best snatch and clean & jerk together to form a Total, which is then ranked against the other athletes. In Paris, Charron, powered partially by maple syrup, placed second.

“Maple syrup is a source of simple carbs which enter the bloodstream quickly after ingestion,” says BarBend Expert and nutrition PhD Dr. Gabrielle Fundaro. “It doesn’t take long for those sugars to be made available to her muscles.”

Fundaro continues: “Theoretically, it could offer a small performance boost, but it could also be a placebo. That said, if she was fasting before the event, it really would make a difference.”

Fundaro is correct: a 2022 systematic review noted that “Carbohydrate ingestion has an ergogenic effect on [strength training] performance by enhancing volume performance, which is more likely to occur when sessions exceed 45 minutes.” (1) Weightlifting events at the Olympics typically last about two hours.

Maple syrup might as well be a delicacy to Canadians, but Charron isn’t doing anything out of the ordinary according to registered dietitian Destini Moody. “When I was involved collegiate athletics, we would give football players similar packets filled with applesauce for them to sip on,” she recounts.

Heck, even we know that nutrition matters when it comes to your workouts. But is syrup a go-to intra-workout supplement for all Canadian weightlifters? That’s the question we asked one of Charron’s teammates.

Here’s former weightlifter and World team member Richard Davidson. Davidson and Charron competed together at the 2019 World Weightlifting Championships:

“I can’t say for sure if she’s always done it, but I know other Canadian weightlifters who do. It’s a tasty way to get some glucose during competitions.”

[Related: Best Pre-Workout Supplements]

Maude Charron | 2024 Olympics

Charron has been an internationally-competitive weightlifter for Canada since 2016. In 2021, she became the 64-kilogram Women’s weightlifting Olympic Champion (we aren’t sure if she got a boost from the syrup there, too).

In Paris, Charron battled valiantly for her second Olympic title, but ultimately fell short of the top of the podium:

Women’s 59-Kilogram Weightlifting Podium

Luo Shifang (CHN)

Maude Charron (CAN)

Kuo Hsing-Chun (TPE)

Gold medalist Shifang set three new Olympic records during the event while attempting to stay ahead of Charron. After her victory in Tokyo, Charron told BarBend that she had postponed her career in law enforcement to continue competing in weightlifting.

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References

King, A., Helms, E., Zinn, C. et al. The Ergogenic Effects of Acute Carbohydrate Feeding on Resistance Exercise Performance: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. Sports Med 52, 2691–2712 (2022).

Featured Image: @teamcanada / Instagram

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