Dinos wrestling alum Erica Wiebe powers to Olympic gold in Rio

Erica Wiebe came to Calgary eight years ago to chase her Olympic dream and on Thursday her dream came true.

The Stittsville, Ont. athlete, who has earned two degrees from the University of Calgary, captured the gold medal in the 75-kilogram freestyle wrestling division at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

She defeated Guzel Manyurova of Kasakhstan 6-0, setting off both a wild celebration with family and teammates at the Olympic wrestling venue and at a viewing party on the University of Calgary campus.

"I just wanted to go out there and not think about what match it was and who I was wrestling," she told CBC Sports.

"I love this sport. I never thought I'd be an Olympic champion. Today I had my best day and it's amazing."

She is the first Dinos alum to win an individual Olympic gold medal since swimmer Mark Tewksbury topped the podium in the 100-metre backstroke in 1992 at Barcelona. All-time, current and former Dinos student-athletes have captured 13 Olympic medals.

Inspired by those who came before her

The 27-year-old Wiebe becomes the third Canadian to win an Olympic gold medal in wrestling. The others were Daniel Igali of Surrey, British Columbia in 2000 in Sydney, Australia and Carol Huynh of Hazelton, British Columbia in 2008 in Beijing, China. 

Like Wiebe, Hunyh had moved to Calgary to train at the University of Calgary and is now an assistant coach with the Dinos. Wiebe was at the 2012 Summer Olympics as a training partner for Dinos' Olympian Leah Ferguson and watching Huynh win a bronze there was a huge inspiration.

Playing a key role in getting Wiebe to the University of Calgary was Canadian women's wrestling pioneer Christine Nordhagen, who was a Dinos assistant at the time and is now with the national program. "Christine wrote me a letter eight years ago telling me to come to Calgary and be part of the training group," Wiebe told CBC.

"I watched Carol every day struggle in the (Dinos wrestling) room and I watched her win a medal live in London and I just knew for our team it was possible and for me today it was possible."

Four matches in one day

Wiebe won four matches including the gold medal bout, all taking place on the same day as is customary in Olympic wrestling. She outscored her opponents 19-2 and the only points she allowed came in her 5-2 quarterfinal win over Zhang Genguu of China. Wiebe advanced to the final by blanking Vasilisa Marzaliuk of Belarus in the semifinal and opened the day by downing Maria Selmaier of Germany 5-0.

The University of Calgary also sent 48-kilogram competitor Jasmine Mian to Rio. She competed on Wednesday and was eliminated in preliminary rounds.

It was while maintaining a full-time academic schedule that Wiebe prepped for her Olympic run. She followed up a degree in kinesiology by completing a second one in sociology this spring. She did that while sweating it out several hours a day in the weight room and on the mat under the tutelage of Canadian national women's coach Leigh Vierling and her personal coach, Dinos assistant Paul Ragusa, who Wiebe carried around the Rio mat on her shoulders during a victory lap Thursday.

Cheered from the Calgary sidelines

A large gathering watched it all unfold on campus, including Dinos wrestling coach Mitch Ostberg, who coached Wiebe while she competed for the Dinos in Canadian Interuniversity Sports.

"Erica is a workhorse and she just accepted the workload that a coach has demanded of her for so many years and has been a spirited competitor all along and I think it showed in her final match," Ostberg said.

The gold medal will inspire more young female wrestlers to pursue the Olympics.

"There's a whole group of youth here who are living the dream right now and I hope that out of them we can produce some international results for Canada and hopefully there's an Olympian amongst them," Ostberg said.

"We've got some good kids in the (Dinos) program right now that I'm very excited about and I'm going to help them win university championships and Paul and Leigh and Christine and others are going to help them advance toward international performance.

"We're excited about the future."

 - With files by Ben Matchett, University of Calgary Dinos