Canadian wrestler Justina Di Stasio proud to represent Indigenous roots at Paris Olympics

Justina Di Stasio has accomplished almost everything a wrestler dreams of.

Di Stasio, of Burnaby, B.C., is a world, Pan Am, and Commonwealth champion, but the Olympian label has eluded the 31-year-old throughout her wrestling career.

She came up short in 2016 and 2020, falling to compatriot Erica Wiebe in Canadian trials. Di Stasio entered the Pan Am Olympic qualifiers in Acapulco, Mexico, on March 1 as the top seed in the 76-kilogram division, seeking her first Summer Games berth.

Di Stasio felt nervous in the days leading up to the competition, with bouts of anxiety flaring up despite being the one-seed. On match day, to settle down, she set a simple goal as she went through warm-ups: to wrestle to the best of her ability.

"I write down in my journal, 'Your best will be better than her best.'" Di Stasio told CBC Sports. "That's just something I have written down, and if that's the goal, it kind of takes the pressure off."

WATCH | Di Stasio on qualifying for her 1st Olympics: 

The worrying was all for naught. Di Stasio easily defeated Honduras' Saidy Chavez Figueroa in the opening round. Then, in the semifinal, she took down Argentina's Linda Machuca to clinch her spot this summer in Paris.

However, she remained calm in hours and days following her feat.

"I feel so calm, and I feel like I should be freaking out," Di Stasio recalls telling her sports psychologist. "I just reached such a huge milestone, but I always expected myself to get here. I know it took a long time — 2016 and 2020 — absolutely devastated I didn't make it. 

"Now that I'm here, I think I am the best mentally I could be." 

Becoming an Olympian is one of the last things to check off for Di Stasio since she began wrestling when she was 12. After all,