Lyon, France — The highly anticipated 47th annual WorldSkills Lyon 2024 competition has begun, where skilled tradespeople from across the globe have gathered to compete for the title of the best in their trade.
Canadian collision repairer James Bartel and car painter Gabrielle Leclerc are in Lyon, France, following months of training with industry-leading representatives.
The WorldSkills Lyon 2024 Autobody Repair competitors enter the grand stage. Video from Bill Speed.
Bartel recently trained alongside Color Compass’ Justin Zelinski at the Manitoba Public Insurance (MPI) Training Facility. Meanwhile, Leclerc brushed up her skills this past July with other international car painting competitors at the SATA WorldSkills Training Challenge.
Bartel is up against 17 other autobody repairers, hailing from India, Kazakhstan, Spain, France, Thailand, Brazil, China and more. The competition officially began on Tuesday and will continue through Saturday, Sept. 14.
Leclerc is competing against 23 other car painters, from countries like United Arab Emirates, China, Denmark, Australia, Japan, Norway and more. The car painting competition also runs Tuesday through Saturday this week.
Join Collision Repair mag in wishing our Canadian competitors the best of luck!
