It begins….
The Olympics began on Sunday with Greco Roman Wrestling kicking off the events. Admittedly, I’m not a Greco expert and with no Quebec athletes representing us in Greco Roman, it’s a little difficult to get excited about it. Nevertheless I’ll still be watching Greco while waiting for the Freestyle Mens and Womens events to begin.
It has been an enjoyable Olympics thus far, with our Canadian women leading the way in the medal count in many sports ranging from swimming to gymnastics. For the sport of wrestling, this will also be the case as Canada was able to qualify a complete team for the Womens side. A shout out goes to Dory Yeats of the Tristar Wrestling Academy, Quebec’s lone representative. Best of luck in Rio Dory.
Dory Yeats (Image the property of cbc.ca)
Image the property of NBC Olympics
Rankings
While no Canadian women are heavily favoured to medal at the Olympics, it should be noted that Quebec’s Dory Yeats did beat Natalia Vorobieva of Russia, the 2012 Olympic Champion and the 2015 World Champion at the United World Wrestling Test Event in January. This has to be a huge confidence booster for Yeats and proves that preliminary rankings may not always be right.
Also, when speaking of the rankings, it’s also worth noting that former wrestlers who have trained extensively in Quebec will also be trying to fulfill their Olympic dream in Rio. Ilana Kratysh (69 kgs), wrestling for Israel and Joice Da Silva (58 kgs) wrestling for Brazil, are not highly ranked either. Here’s hoping that these two can also make a splash in Rio as both these athletes have beaten some interesting opponents throughout their wrestling careers.
Ilana Kratysh (Image property of UWW)
Joice Da Silva (Image property of panamericano.ig.com.br)
Finally, we still must remember that though we always want our athletes to medal and become champions, just making the Olympics is an accomplishment and is often the lifelong dream of many of our athletes. Once again, best of luck to our Olympians as they try to bring home the Gold for Canada!