Cree wrestler has her eyes set on Olympic gold
Heading home from Banti‐ ng Middle School in Coquit‐ lam, B.C. Justina Di Stasio would look through a win‐ dow at children tumbling, cartwheeling and doing backwards rolls and wan‐ ted to join.
"I thought it was gymnas‐ tics," said Di Stasio.
It was actually a wrestling team practising and that was the beginning of a nearly 20year journey that has landed the 31-year-old a spot on Team Canada for the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Di Stasio, a member of Norway House Cree Nation in Manitoba, qualified for the Olympics earlier this year by taking down Argentina's Lin‐ da Machuca in the 76-kilo‐ gram division at the Pan American Qualifiers.
Di Stasio said she was im‐ mediately good at wrestling when she started and was wrestling kids two years old‐ er when she was in Grade 6.
But as she got older, com‐ petitions got harder. Then, in her first year wrestling at Simon Fraser University, she competed at the World Championships.
"I watched a girl from Rus‐ sia win the World Champi‐ onships and I had gotten knocked out of the tourna‐ ment pretty early," said Di Stasio.
Di Stasio said the girl's technique was so refined, she wanted to be as good as her.
Di Stasio tried for the Olympics in both 2016 and 2020 but came up short.
"Ever since then I was like, 'I won't stop wrestling until I go to the Olympics,'" she said.
WATCH | Justina Di Sta‐ sio's road to the Olympics:
Now Di Stasio and her coach Raj Virdi have a new goal: winning.
"That's what we talk about every single day is going out and winning the Olympics," said Virdi, who has been working with Di Stasio for about five years.
Virdi said the next two months are crucial in getting ready for the Olympics.
"I don't know if a lot of people understand how much work and effort and pain and suffering and every‐ thing that comes with trying to go to the Olympics," said Virdi.
Norway House Cree Na‐ tion has also shown her sup‐ port.
"They're backing me fi‐ nancially, which takes a huge load off me mentally and then just like the constant encouragement. I'm getting messages all the time just checking in and support and that means a lot," said Di Stasio.
Di Stasio said she is focus‐ ing on getting one per cent better every day, and writing "2024 Olympic champion" in her journal, a practice she has done for years.
Before a match, she'll sit in the venue and listen to the crowd, getting used to the energy. To help calm her nerves, she throws on a playlist of a mishmash of songs from Mac Miller, Mid‐ dle by Maren Morris, and No Fear by Terry Clark.
"I just say to myself, 'I'll do anything to win the Olympics' and it's almost like an extra push to just keep doing my conditioning harder, lift my weight, or keep wrestling even though I'm absolutely gassed," said Di Stasio.
The wrestling events at the Paris Olympics are sched‐ uled to start Aug. 5.