I shared a little on my facebook page about my excitement heading to Gotzis, Austria tomorrow. It is an opportunity to take a little trip down memory lane...I'll explain more as we get into things.
But before I begin I'll update you guys on the past weekend! I wrestled in Dormagen, Germany at the German Grand Prix. Traditionally this has been a tough tournament and this year was no different. The Canadians brought our senior, junior, and cadet national teams which encompassed over 30 athletes ranging in age from 15-32! We wrestled the two day tournament through the blistering German heat and I ended up taking home the top prize beating Marzaliuk from Belarus in the finals. It was a close match and I wasn't too content with how I wrestled but only up from here!! Luckily we shipped off to the Sportschule in Hennef where we are having a great camp with several different countries. Typically we do two sessions on the mats each day and try and recover and rest inbetween sessions. I have learned as I mature in the sport that the rest and recovery in key to make it through the sessions in both body and mind! I try not to nap but I am re-visiting an old friend by re-reading the Game of Thrones series which is always entertaining... and sometimes sad as we all know how well our favourite characters fare in the novel! As I mentioned, tomorrow we board the bus and head off to Gotzis, Austria. I will be celebrating my 25th birthday on weigh-in day and it is a funny full circle of my journey as that is the place where my whole internationally wrestling career started. I competed with the Cadet team in Austria and marked my 17th birthday in that beautiful little town. It was there I discovered first hand the thrill of international wrestling, the puzzle of different styles each country owns, and the tightknit bonds that were forged forever. I met my best friend and current 48kg World Team member Jasmine Mian on that trip... for some reason they thought it would be a good idea to bunk the biggest and littlest athletes together and that was the moment our unlikely friendship first took off. We were both 16, young, naïve, carefree girls who loved wrestling and adventure. We're still those people except a little bit older and I would like to say wiser but there's some people such as my coach Leigh Vierling who may disagree!! Speaking of coaches, this camp here in Hennef has just been spectacular. I have had the opportunity to wrestle some great people but also really focus on improving specific technical aspects of my wrestling. We always debrief back in the room during down time and I remember telling my roomies Jasmine and Jill that I really felt like today I became a better wrestler. That is something I want to continue to pursue for a couple more years to come! I apologize! Turns out I had a lot of random ideas to share with you guys today and I seem to have rambled on! I will send out a blog as an update after the tournament in Austria but please stay tuned to my athlete facebook page and twitter for more current happenings! Here is a FILA wrestling article about the weekend's tournament where I get a pretty nice shout out! http://www.fila-official.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1247:stadnyk-wiebe-post-big-wins-at-german-grand-prix-for-women&catid=60:actualite&Itemid=100235&lang=en Have a Wonderful Day, Erica
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorErica Wiebe is a Canadian freestyle wrestler and Bachelor of Arts student at the University of Calgary. Her passion for wrestling and writing combine in the words of this blog, sprinkled with a strong opinion on certain matters and a hint of feminist thrown in for good measure. Archives
August 2017
|