Fighting for Tokyo dream
Balfour has to wrestle with politics of his sport just to get a shot
It’s easy to be down on the Tokyo Olympics. Recent public-opinion polls suggest 80 per cent of Japan’s citizenry would prefer the Games be cancelled or postponed, and that was before the 83-year-old president of the local organizing committee resigned after suggesting women talk too much in meetings.
From the thick of a pandemic winter, it can be a serious chore to muster enthusiasm for a coming-together of nations a little more than five months in the offing.
But then you hear the story of Jevon Balfour, the Brampton-raised, St. Catharines-based national wrestling champion who is being denied a chance at qualifying for Tokyo on a bureaucratic technicality, and you’re reminded of one of the chief reasons why these Olympics matter. They matter because an athlete like Balfour, who has every reason to be down on the maddening politics of amateur sport, is still doing everything in his power to get to the Games. They matter because every couple of years we ask a lot of our Canadian Olympians; we demand they own the podium, or something close. The least we can do is hope each of them gets a fair shot at delivering the goods.
Even though Balfour is getting the benefit of no such thing, his Tokyo dream persists. And you can understand why. At 26, he has been Canada’s champion in the 74-kilogram weight class five years running. He only narrowly missed out on a chance to represent Canada at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
But somewhere in the lead-up to the Canadian Olympic trials for Tokyo in December, Balfour suffered an eye injury that kept him out of the competition. But thanks to Balfour’s status as the reigning national champ, Canada Wrestling’s rules allowed Balfour to challenge the winner of the trials, B.C. wrestler Jasmit Phulka, for the right to represent Canada at the ensuing Olympic qualifier. A doctor, around that time, declared Balfour to be monocular — that is, only able to see out of one eye — and recommended Balfour wear goggles while competing. Goggles aren’t common in wrestling, and Balfour wasn’t thrilled with the notion of wearing them. But he wore the goggles. And he defeated Phulka. Which should have earned him a spot on Canada’s team at the Olympic qualifier now scheduled to be held in April in Bulgaria.
Alas, as it stands, Balfour is not scheduled to be on that roster. Wrestling Canada has since determined that Phulka will represent Canada for the right to be an Olympian. Never mind that Balfour’s record against Phulka is a perfect 8-0. Never mind that Balfour won the post-trials challenge fair and square.
The issue goes back to the goggles. Because Balfour wore goggles in defeating Phulka, and because goggles are prohibited in competition by wrestling’s international governing body, an arbitrator ruled in March that Balfour’s victory ought to be essentially nullified. Which doesn’t make sense on a number of levels. For one, Balfour says he didn’t get a chance to argue his side of the case on account of a missed email. For another, Balfour has since been told by three separate doctors that he does not require goggles to compete. And as for the part about him being monocular; three separate doctors have since determined he’s binocular. He can see out of both eyes. Balfour said he doesn’t even wear glasses when he’s off the mat.
None of this has swayed Wrestling Canada, which said in a statement to the Star that, on the matter of who should represent the country in the 74-kilogram weight class, it’s sticking to an arbitrator’s ruling from last March.
“While Mr. Balfour now is able to wrestle as a binocular athlete, without protective eyewear, this does not change the fact that the Canadian team for consideration through (Wrestling Canada’s) Olympic qualification process for the 2020 Olympics was determined, and the decision of (the arbitrator) stands,” the organization said in a statement.
So while Wrestling Canada’s statement acknowledged that Balfour is “an exceptional wrestler” who has “worked tirelessly for our program,” it insisted, in essence, that its hands are tied.
Plenty of wrestling lifers are shaking
their heads at the injustice of it all. Justin Abdou, the varsity wrestling coach at Simon Fraser University who represented Canada at the 2000 Olympics, has watched both Balfour and Phulka since they were high schoolers. Abdou has coached from Phulka’s corner when Phulka has competed for the Burnaby Mountain Wrestling Club. He has coached from Balfour’s corner when Balfour has represented Canada internationally. He’s an admirer of both athletes. And to Abdou’s eye, the idea that Balfour isn’t heading to the Olympic qualifier simply doesn’t make sense.
“As a Canadian, you want to put your best foot forward, put your best guy out there, because it’s not going to be easy to qualify at that weight. And one thing that’s hard to argue with is that Jevon has proven himself to be the best guy,” Abdou said. “I can feel for both of them, at this point. But the Canadian in me is well aware of the record between the two of them. Jevon is 8-0. And I feel it’s very unfortunate right now, what Jevon’s having to deal with, and having to fight through, to try and get what he feels is rightfully his.”
If it’s enough to make you throw up your hands at the ridiculousness of it all, Balfour has refused to give up hope. He’s got a lawyer. He’s pursuing various legal avenues. This week he received word that his challenge is expected to be heard by Wrestling Canada in the coming days. If that fails, there’s at least one other possible recourse. All the while, Balfour has been training with an elite group of U.S. wrestlers in Ithaca, N.Y., training as though he’s still got a shot at Tokyo even though that’s a long way from assured.
“I always go into these legal challenges picturing that we’re going to win,” he said. “Even right now, even though we’ve been defeated many times in these legal challenges, I still think, ‘Now we have it. We have all the points that we need. There’s no way we can lose.’ ”
The tone-deaf politics can be maddening. The bureaucratic thick-headedness is sickening. And yet at the root of it all, in the gyms and in the weight rooms, it’s dreamers like Balfour who remain beyond inspiring. It’s easy to be down on the Olympics. But, to this eye, at least, it’s impossible not to root for Balfour in his ongoing fight to get there.
“Going to the Olympics is the pinnacle of the sport,” he said. “And that’s where I want to go. I want to go to the pinnacle of my sport, to know where I stand, to know I can compete with the best in the world, to know I deserve to be there.”
Even if he wins his legal challenge, he won’t be guaranteed a spot in Tokyo.
The 74-kilogram class is always a minefield of dynamic athletes. As Abdou was saying recently, it’s a weight class made for “average-sized human beings.” Which makes it tough.
“Most really good averagesized human beings aren’t big enough to play football or basketball, or any of the bigtime sports,” Abdou said. “So almost every country is going to put a superb athlete on the mat at that weight class. It’s going to be one of the tougher ones to get in.”
Canada hasn’t been to an Olympics in the weight class since 2012. But if anyone deserves a shot at changing that trend, it doesn’t take 20-20 vision to see the clear choice.
“I want my chance,” Balfour said. “I think I’ve proven it enough that I’m the best guy. I don’t know how many more times you want me to prove it.”