Canadian wrestler Justina Di Stasio proud to represent Indigenous roots at Paris Olympics
31-year-old to make Olympic debut after setbacks in 2016, 2020 Canadian trials
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, she's won everything she wanted to win. Punching her ticket to Paris and persevering through losses and setbacks makes it all the better.
"Everyone's been saying, 'This took you so long, perseverance, blah, blah, blah,'" Di Stasio said. It does feel good to know that it was such a long journey, and it's finally coming together here near the end of it."
She can begin preparing for her career's biggest moment with her flight to France. Now, Di Stasio is eyeing down a goal that is finally possible with her Olympic door swung wide open.
'I want to win the Olympics."
Representing her roots
As it stands, Di Stasio will be the only Indigenous wrestler representing Canada at the Olympic games this summer. While she was born in what is today known as Burnaby, Di Stasio is a member of Norway House Cree Nation in Manitoba.
Along with being of Italian descent, she takes pride in her Cree identity.
The soon-to-be Olympian is making her mark on a culture she feels is under-appreciated. To be another example of Indigenous excellence is something she's excited about, even if she's just one in a long line of Indigenous trailblazers.
"To be someone to make their mark on such a proud and exciting culture that I feel sometimes people don't expect success, the way historical views have been and whatnot," Di Stasio said. "To be a little spec on the success that Indigenous people can find, I'm very excited for that."
And her ties to Norway House Cree Nation makes it all the more special.
"Maybe a kid will find wrestling, and I think that's so much cooler than anything I can do," Di Stasio said. "The fact that new kids are going to be exposed to this, whether they're Indigenous, female, male, Italian. I don't care.
"Wrestling did so much for me, [so] it's cool to be the reason someone's going to see wrestling for the first time."
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