Wrestling gold medallist Wiebe gets warm welcome
After being greeted by throngs of family and fans Friday night at the Calgary International Airport, Olympic gold medallist Erica Wiebe had one thing on her mind: hitting up her local pub.
“I’m going to the Riverstone Pub right now, and all of my friends and family and the wrestling community in Calgary are going to be there,” she said, laughing.
Wiebe, a Calgarian for the last nine years, was one of Canada’s four gold medallists in the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, dominating her final match to come out on top in women’s Olympic wrestling.
When she walked out of the arrival doors at the airport, the crowd erupted in cheers as adoring fans shook their cowbells and yelped for joy, with their bright red “Be-wieber” T-shirts and homemade welcome signs on display.
“It’s so surreal to come down here and see my friends and family greeting me, it’s so special,” said Wiebe, wearing a shocked smile when she got her first view of the dozens of people who came to greet her.
“I’m just so honoured to have it culminate like this.”
Surreal were the same words Wiebe’s family used to describe their feelings.
Amid the waiting crowd was Karen Gilan, described as Wiebe’s second mother. She was in Rio herself and got to watch Wiebe win her final match against Kazakhstan’s Guzel Manyurova.
“Watching her wrestle that day, she was just so solid and on her game, and you just knew she was going to get it,” said Gilan with a beaming smile.
“That final match was just surreal.”
The medal, Wiebe says, isn’t just for her though.
It’s for her entire community of friends and family in Calgary that she says brought her to the competitive level that she’s at now.
“Wrestling isn’t easy, and it’s a sport where you literally need somebody else to train, but what people have put into my preparation in these last nine years in Calgary ... I really want to show that every single person has had a large or small part in this process,” she said.
Jan Leach, another one of her extended family members, was ecstatic over Wiebe’s accomplishment. “It’s fantastic, she deserves everything she’s getting.”