Joey France – 80 and ‘still strong’

BRING UP the topic of bodybuilding and weightlifting in Guyana and the name Joey France will come up. In fact, he’s one of few who excelled both locally and internationally in both

80 and still going! Joey France and wife during his 80th Birthday celebration (Colin Bess-Nelson photos)

versions of the ‘power sport’.

The late Sydney Paul, called the ‘God Father’ of weightlifting in Guyana, chronicled that the sport was introduced in the then British Guiana by the Bacchus family, who resided in Queenstown, Georgetown, in 1936; one year before France was born.

“I was just 16-years-old when I got into bodybuilding, going to the Catholic Youth Organisation (CYO) Club in Robb Street. Cycling was really my hobby, but I couldn’t afford it” France explained.

France celebrated his 80th birthday recently, and took time to reflect on the two sports that brought him national recognition and becoming a community hero.

By 1955, France felt that he was ready to make his debut in bodybuilding, competing at the Muscle Beach Competition and surprised himself with a second place finish.

Joey France competing at the Central American Games

“It was an Easter Monday, and back then we used to have the Muscle Beach competition by the Seawalls. I went out there, and did my thing, came second, which was a surprise because like I said, it was just an exercise for me” France highlighted with sparkling smile.

The charismatic 80-year-old recounted his 1956 junior Mr. Guyana competition and three years later (1959) his participation in the Senior Mr. Guyana where he was triumphant.

It was in 1959 where he then switched to weightlifting, stating: “I was strong. My body looked a certain way because I was in the gym all the time.”

Holding a photograph of him participating at the 1966 Central American Games, France, with a smirk and his wife on his side, reflected “those were the days boy! Those days we did everything for the love of the sport; we didn’t get nothing but I like when I’m riding through the area, people use to look up to me and let me know they’re proud of me.” France grew up on ‘Pakoo Dam’, Werk-en-Rust, where he was considered the community ‘idol’.

“Back in those days we had men like Ernest “Marvel” Williams, Roy Cox and Roy McArthur, so competition used to be real stiff, but I was still able to do my thing” said France.

Sydney Paul described France as a world class middleweight, while chronicling the history of weightlifting in Guyana.

France, at the 1966 Central American Games gave Guyana a silver medal for Independence and later the same year was again the silver medallist at the Commonwealth Games in Kingston, Jamaica.

France added another silver to his trophy case with the second spot at the Winnipeg Pan American Games in 1967.

Joey, as he’s more commonly called, until he migrated to the USA with his wife in 1971, was one of, if not the strongest in his division, but he highlighted that it was not an easy road.

“Food? Boy we use to have to do everything for our self. We didn’t have sponsors like I see some of the guys getting now. In the colonial times things were better, because remember it was British Guiana, so we used to get everything. But after Independence, things changed for plenty of us” France said.

“I used to work at Booker’s Garage as a Serviceman and while they used to give me time-off to train and stuff, they never used to give you money to support you. So it was hard having a family and still doing the sport,” France recalled.

It was while living in the USA, France decided to call it ‘quits’ on both bodybuilding and weightlifting, stating “I couldn’t do it anymore. We had kids. We had to work both day and night. My wife and I used to take turns looking at them as well, but I loved those days. We had real sportsmen then. In fact, I think we played more sports than now. Every day or most weekends, all those grounds used to be full, but not now.”

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