Licensed in Verdun (Meuse), she obtained an eighth world title. She will compete in the European Championships in August. On the planet, it has no equivalent. And if the international context has, this year, melted adversity during the world championships in Kazakhstan, the new title obtained at the end of May, is added to the long list of Évelyne Herbin’s prize list.
The career of this 67-year-old retiree who, for more than thirty years, has won all the medals in the weightlifting world in her age category is amazing. Sitting on a sober wooden bench in the locker room of her SAV club (Sport Athlétique Verdunoise), this former employee in the kitchens at the Verdun hospital, recites her prize list. “I’m starting to have trouble remembering all my victories,” she smiles. Her statistics are eloquent: 40 titles of champion of France for 47 participations, but also eight titles of world champion and just as much in Europe.
“You have to find an activity to stay active”
The latest worldwide consecration was obtained in the bench press category. She did not beat her personal best of 105 kg but, she confesses, “due to the Covid, I could not train normally. And then the years go by…”. In recent times, this wife of a farmer has therefore concentrated on the “bench press”, abandoning the two other powerlifting competitions of the “squat” and the “deadlift”. And for good reason: “I’m starting to have bad knees, with osteoarthritis”. She must soon see a specialist and does not rule out an operation.
But at the gates of his 70th birthday, priority to competition. Évelyne Herbin has already booked her plane tickets for the European Championships in Budapest in August. Objective: victory, and nothing else. “You have to find an activity to stay active,” says the one who comes three times a week to lift cast iron in the gym. “And then, the competition, it allows me to see the country”.
