Scott McCarthy

Hall of Fame

Some are born strong, others are made strong. For Scott McCarthy, both are true.

Scott started weightlifting in Faro at the age of 10, mostly because skating wasn’t a strength and he enjoyed watching his brother lift weights. Within three years Scott won his first Junior National medal. He went on to win hundreds of medals, trophies and champions’ plaques. He appeared at the Western Summer Games, the 1987 and 1991 Canada Games, the Western Canada Weightlifting Championships, and the 1998 and 1999 World Weightlifting Championships. It was at the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester where Scott — earning two bronze medals — became Yukon’s first Commonwealth Games medal winner. After winning the 2003 Western Canada Weightlifting Championships in front of a hometown crowd in Whitehorse, Scott put his bar back on the rack for good.

Although he was no longer competing as an athlete, Scott coached other lifters to two consecutive Canada Games as well as coaching the Canadian National Junior Team at the 2003 World Championships in Mexico. One of the athletes he coached went on to reach the podium more than once — Emily Quarton followed Scott’s lead and won two silver meals at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, Australia. 

People may think weightlifting is an individual sport. But Scott McCarthy’s influence turned weightlifting into team building, ensuring the athlete and the sport holds their own in the Yukon Sports Hall of Fame.