HIGH ACHIEVERS: Wrestler Erica Wiebe formally retires, shifts to Olympic administrator from Olympic champion

By Martin Cleary

Olympic champion Erica Wiebe of Stittsville will be in the thick of it all at this week’s Canadian wrestling championships at TD Place Arena, but don’t expect to see her making any match-ending moves or chasing a gold medal.

Wrestling Canada announced Wednesday the 2016 women’s 75-kilogram Olympic gold medallist has retired, after a rewarding career as one of Canada’s greatest amateur wrestlers.

Instead of facing the stress of a weigh-in, studying the strengths and weaknesses of her opponents and battling through two short rounds of competition, Wiebe will be behind a microphone broadcasting a variety of bouts on FloWrestling. She also was the commentator at the 2023 Canadian wrestling trials.

The national senior, U20-junior and U17-cadet championships for men and women are scheduled to start Thursday and run through Sunday. Competition begins at 10 a.m. on the first three days and 9:30 a.m. on Sunday. Tickets can be purchased at the door or online.

A two-time Olympian in 2016 and 2021 (and an alternate in 2012), Wiebe rarely wrestled following her first-round loss at the Tokyo Summer Olympic Games. She won the continental Olympic qualifier in Ottawa just before the world shut down for the COVID-19 pandemic and delayed the Tokyo Games by a year.

Read More: Not the way Wiebe pictured it, but Olympic wrestling champ qualifies for second Games in Ottawa

During the past three years, she has focused on continuing her post-secondary education (MBA Americas courses at Cornell University and Queen’s University), serving as a competition commentator for the United World Wrestling organization, coaching, working with non-profit organizations and more recently finding a full-time job at the national-sports level.

“Many of my fondest memories in wrestling are related to the community, the friends and role models I have in this sport,” Wiebe said in Wrestling Canada’s announcement. “Making my first Olympic Games with a team of six incredible, equally unique women and the bond we have between us is something I cherish more than anything.

“I have many memories of the training camps, the challenging workouts and the many coffee chats with my coach Paul Ragusa. I was fortunate to have won a lot of big tournaments and I think winning the 2013 Poland Open and beating the reigning Olympic champion was probably the moment in my career where I realized I could really be something.”

Wiebe had her first Olympic experience at the 2012 London Games, when she served as an alternate on the Canadian team. Four years later, she emerged as the 75-kilogram Olympic gold medalist in Rio de Janeiro by defeating Kazakhstan’s Guzel Manyurova 6-0 in the final. She finished the two-day competition with a 4-0 record and outscored her opponents 19-2.

The 2020 Tokyo Olympics, however, were a major disappointment for Wiebe, who lost her first and only match 5-4 to Estonia’s Epp Mae.

Despite the early exit, Wiebe had built a remarkable career resume in wrestling. Familiar with playing many sports, Wiebe started wrestling at Sacred Heart Catholic High School in Grade 9 and learned the elements of the sport, earning a sprinkling of success.

Although she didn’t make the University of Calgary women’s wrestling team in her first year, she persisted and was selected to the Canadian women’s team in 2009. In her 20-year wrestling career, Wiebe won 10 national titles – seven women’s gold medals, two junior and one cadet in 2006.

Internationally, she had many memorable moments – 2018 world championship bronze medallist, 2014 and 2018 Commonwealth Games champion, 2017 World University Games gold medallist, 2019 and 2021 Matteo Pellicone champion, 2013 and 2018 Poland Open winner and 2014 Ivan Yarygin champion.

By playing many different sports in her youth – basketball, soccer, alpine skiing, rhythmic gymnastics (one week), volleyball and touch football – Wiebe was a well-rounded athlete, when she stepped onto the wrestling mats at Sacred Heart and later with the National Capital Wrestling Club.

“In Grade 9, there was a sign posted outside the gym door for co-ed wrestling,” recalled Wiebe, who now has the Goulbourn Recreation Complex gymnasium named in her honour. “My best friend and I joined the team and I just fell in love with the sport. It’s funny because in elementary school, the Olympics simply weren’t on my radar.

“When I started wrestling, women’s wrestling wasn’t even an Olympic sport. But then in Grade 12, after wrestling had been added to the Games, I wrote in my yearbook: ‘London 2012. Watch for Me.’”

While her classmates couldn’t watch her at the London Olympics, the optics were completely different four years later in Rio de Janeiro, when she posted four wins for the gold.

“Ahead of those Games, I had beaten everybody in the world, but I had never done it when it mattered most,” Wiebe continued.

“On my day of competition, I woke up in the Olympic Village and threw up. I was so nervous. But I was also ready. I was so prepared mentally, physically and emotionally I didn’t care about the outcome because I was 100 per cent in control of what I wanted, which was to have my best performance.

“When I won the gold, it was surreal. There I was, an Olympic champion. There is so much weight behind that. It’s a title that defines everything about me, but also defines nothing about me.”

Read More: Olympic champ savours singing O Canada (Rio 2016 recap)

During the past three years, Wiebe stayed in touch with competitive wrestling, but focused mainly on exploring career options.

Last year, she received a text message out of the blue asking her to be a commentator for the Asian senior wrestling championships.

“I said ‘yes.’ Saying yes when I had no business to has gotten me into a lot of good places in my life,” Wiebe explained. “I took the chance and they asked me to come back for the senior world championships and it has continued from there.

“I’ve stood on the shoulders of giants in my career as an athlete and never been the first in anything – thanks in part to some incredible, tenacious, successful women before me. Being the first woman to commentate men’s wrestling at the world championships was an honour and it’s important for me that we continue to open doors for women in sport in every avenue.”

Having survived the challenges of elite amateur wrestling as well as competing one season in a professional league in India and exploring the World Wrestling Entertainment training site in Florida, Wiebe is now grappling with a new job.

She is now working as Manager of Athlete Relations, Safe Sport and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion for the Canadian Olympic Committee, which recently published a Q&A with Wiebe as part of a series on “members of our team who have competed at major multi-sport Games and who are now dedicating their professional lives to helping the next generation of Team Canada athletes live their dreams.”

“I’m taking each day in stride and enjoying challenging myself in areas beyond the mat,” she highlighted.

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