Cree wrestler launches media platform to promote the sport he loves

A Cree wrestler has stepped away from his own career to launch a media platform dedicated to wrestling, aiming to highlight athletes' stories and elevate the sport across the country.

Cole Sanderson said he noticed a visibility problem for the sport in mainstream media and felt something needed to be done to showcase how hard athletes work.

"It's trying to give back to the sport that quite literally gave me everything," said Sanderson. 

That's when he decided to launch his media company North Wrestle.

Sanderson, who is from Sturgeon Lake First Nation in Saskatchewan, said he started wrestling in Grade 9 when he ran away from his community to Prince Albert to live with his grandma.

He said his grandma didn't know much about the sport and was worried how much it was going to cost. Luckily, wrestling only requires you to buy shoes.

After winning provincial and national medals for his high school team and club, Sanderson was at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon to wrestle.

He said that's where he started realizing how hard his teammates and competitors were working while going unnoticed.

"People can cut weight, they can go to a tournament and they can win gold and nobody would even know about it," said Sanderson.

"So that was me seeing that for years and it sort of just made me question a bit more like why don't people know about this and how can we change this?"

Then one day, in his last season, he went out and bought a camera.

Sanderson said he started to bring his camera to tournaments he was competing in to film and take photos of his teammates' matches.

Eventually, he decided to stop competing to remain unbiased when photographing events and to grow his platform.

"It was very tough to make that transition