Rosina Randafiarison

Randafiarison took up weightlifting at the age of 15 in her home town of Majunga. Her father encouraged her to start training at a local gym. Later, she moved to Antananarivo for training.^[3]

Her snatch and total lifts at the 2019 African Championship were recognised as Junior Women's African Records.^[4][5]

The last opportunity for Madagascar to ensure the qualification of its weightlifters for the Tokyo Olympics was at the African Championship Zone 3 (South Zone for juniors) event in November 2019. Jean Alex Harinelina Randriamanarivo, the president of the Madagascan weightlifting federation (Fédération Malgache d'Haltérophilie, de musculation et culturisme), identified Randafiarison as a key part of the team.^[5][6] At the 2019 African Games, Randafiarison won the gold.^[7] She won a total of 16 continental and regional gold medals in 2019.^[8]

In September 2023, Randafiarison competed in the women's 45 kg at the 2023 World Weightlifting Championships. She won silver medals in the snatch and clean & jerk events, and total, becoming the first medalist for Madagascar in any Olympics discipline at the world championship level.^[9]

Randafiarison secured one of the top ten slots in her weight divisions based on the IWF Olympic Qualification Rankings, and qualified for the 2024 Summer Olympics.^[10] In August 2024, she became the third woman to represent Madagascar in weightlifting at the Olympics, following Nathalia Rakotondramanana in 2012 and Elisa Vania Ravololoniaina in 2016,^[3] when she competed in the women's 49 kg event at the Summer Olympics held in Paris, France.^[3][11] She set three African records in the snatch (80 kg), clean & jerk (100 kg), and total (180 kg), finishing in 10th place.^[11][12] She was a flagbearer for Madagascar at the 2024 Summer Olympics Parade of Nations at the start of the games and for the parade of flagbearers at the closing ceremony.^[3][13]

She is coached at the national level by Thomas d'Aquin Rakotoarison.^[3] Madagascar does not have a national weightlifting centre; she trains at a gym in Antananarivo.^[3]

Her husband is Claudio Fanantenana Randrianavalona, who was the 2019 Madagascar champion in snatch, clean and jerk, and overall, and a gold medalist at the 2023 Indian Ocean Island Games.^[14][3]