Canadian wrestler Justina Di Stasio's path to Olympics paved with patience, resilience

No athlete's road to the Olympics is seamless. Justina Di Stasio's has been challenging, but serves as a masterclass in patience and resilience.

The 31-year-old wrestler is an avid learner and believes so strongly in education that she took a one-year sabbatical from her sport during the pandemic to pursue a career as a teacher.

Her motivation and drive in her sport is sincere and centred. But it wasn't always like that. When I recently spoke with Di Stasio, it struck me how self-aware she is.

Over the duration of our hour-long call, we chatted and she told me about her love for wrestling, her mental health advocacy, and learning more about her Indigenous culture.

I like to ask athletes how they fell in love with their sport. At this level of performance and success, it's hard to imagine them not loving it — and Di Stasio is no exception.

She was exposed to wrestling in grade six at Banting Middle School because the wrestling room was close to her locker. She would peer into a small window and was fascinated. Admittedly, she did not love it at first but her high school coach, Selwyn Tam, changed that for her.

"I'm probably biased, but wrestling has really good people in it," she said. "And I had the right people looking out for me since I was like 12. So it worked out."

WATCH | Di Stasio ready to leave her mark on Paris Games:

Di Stasio loves wrestling and counts her family's lack of intensity and knowledge as a reason she was able to love it from the start, and get opportunities from it. The support from her family was pivotal. Di Stasio did not feel pressured to perform and it enabled her to get better and practice without compulsion.

"There was no expectation, no precedent. No pressure to know how far you could go