HIGH ACHIEVERS: Wrestler Heaven-Lee Emond earns U23 silver medal in international debut

By Martin Cleary

When Heaven-Lee Emond attended Fisher Park Middle School, she enjoyed playing soccer and basketball during her phys-ed classes. But sometimes her style was a bit on the aggressive side.

When a teacher noticed she had a real competitive edge to her game, he suggested she try wrestling.

That caught her by total surprise.

“I had never heard of the sport,” Emond admitted during a phone interview this week. “What is that?”

But Emond was open-minded and looked into it to get an understanding of amateur wrestling and not the dramatic and chaotic professional wrestling seen on TV.

Wrestling isn’t part of the elementary school sports program, but she did attend some tournaments to volunteer, working on the 30-second shot clock or keeping track of points earned in a match.

When she graduated to Nepean High School, Emond was immediately attracted to the Knights wrestling team. She went to the tryouts with a friend and instantly loved the grappling, throwing and pinning involved in one of the world’s oldest and competitive sports.

While she was “a little awkward” at the start, Emond stuck with it through her shyness, anxiety and a two-year break because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

After eight years, she now knows how it feels to be an international medallist.

Last weekend, Emond, 22, wore a Canadian team uniform for the first time and surprised herself by winning the women’s 65-kilogram class silver medal at the U23 Pan-American wrestling championships in Lima, Peru.

Emond placed second at the 2025 Canadian women’s U23 wrestling championships. When champion Maria Sawiak of Edmonton aged-out of that division, Wrestling Canada invited Emond to take the next giant step in her career.

“I was definitely trying to stay neutral,” Emond said about her approach to the competition in Lima so she wouldn’t worry about her final result. “I was going to have fun. I was very surprised. I didn’t expect a lot.”

In the past, Emond would put pressure on herself to perform well and, if she lost a match or two, she would be upset. For her international debut, she decided to keep an open mind and focus on one match at a time.

Emond, who has completed her four-year geography program at Carleton University, won her first U23 Pan-American match by a 5-0 decision over Peru’s Romina Daniela Garro Villanera.

In her second and final pool match, Emond lost a tight 2-0 decision to American Nina Blanche Kemu Makem. Despite the loss, she moved into the cross-over semifinals, where she used a football tactic to defeat Jeimy Zuhair Delgado Sandoval of Ecuador in the dying seconds of a back-and-forth match, which she trailed by one point.

“There was three seconds left and my coach said go for a throw. I said there’s no time. I remember going back to my corner and running straight through her. She was a little smaller than me. I got the points,” said Emond, who won the match 9-4.

“I was so annoyed with myself. I should have won the match earlier.”

Emond advanced to the final for a rematch with Kemu Makem, who dominated the gold-medal match 10-0. The silver medal by Emond was the first international wrestling medal won by a Carleton University student-athlete. She represented the Ravens for her last three years and also competes for the National Capital Wrestling Club.

Despite the loss, Edmond had high praise for Kemu Makem’s wrestling style, especially her clean and strong double-leg takedown.

“It felt very surreal,” Emond said, reflecting on that end-of-match achievement. “I was proud of myself and asked ‘is this real?’ It’s my first international tournament and I had no expectations. And I had no feelings that I should have come first.”

One of the factors that led to Emond’s success was her growing confidence as a wrestler. It wasn’t always there, but she listened to a little voice that encouraged her to continue along the wrestling pathway.

Representing Nepean High School, she performed well at the National Capital Secondary School Athletic Association championships and qualified for the 2019 and 2020 OFSAA championships. In the latter provincial high school championships in Sault Ste. Marie, she won two of her four bouts, but missed placing in the top six.

“At OFSAA, I was shy and didn’t really know what to think of it,” she explained. “I was definitely excited and happy to have that opportunity. But I was most anxious at the tournament.”

When the COVID-19 pandemic shut down sports in March 2020 and lasted for two years, Emond felt she had been slammed to the mat.

“It was definitely very tough for me. Wrestling was an outlet to not think of things at home and school. It was a way to see myself. I did try to go back at the end of COVID and start to lift (weights), but my mom was nervous about it. But she knew I wanted to wrestle again.”

Emond was preparing to enrol at the University of Guelph to become a veterinarian, but when she discovered Carleton University had a wrestling club, she decided to stay at home to study and grapple.

She eased her way back into wrestling and didn’t compete in her first year. Instead, she preferred to train with coach Chris Schrauwen, who conducted practice sessions for the Carleton team alongside the National Capital Wrestling Club athletes.

It took her some time to feel comfortable wrestling adults and she was shy about asking for help from Schrauwen.

“Sometimes I’d say, ‘OK I’ll come to the tournament.’ But at the last minute, I’d chicken out,” she offered.

But in her second year at Carleton and living on her own, Emond started to grow as an athlete.

“I’m not sure what happened. But when I moved out on my own, I didn’t have to ask for permission to, say, go to Hamilton for a meet. I jumped into it.

“My first year competing, I didn’t do well, losing every match but there were a few wins. I was stressed out and anxious. But something kept telling me to keep going. I knew I loved it. I loved tournaments.”

Last year, Emond started to ask Schrauwen for help and he provided specific programs for her to develop her style.

“I was nervous. I needed help to get better. I was super shy and I kept telling Chris ‘no, no it’s OK,’” she said. “This all came together and I got more confidence.”

Emond also greatly benefited from Ravens veteran Jessica Hong and Alexandra Vlad coming beside her for daily chats and encouragement to build her wrestling self-esteem.

“It was hard to explain,” Emond said. “A lot of times, I’d get anxious in the moment and I didn’t want to be on the mat. I’d get so anxious about how I was going to perform and then I wouldn’t perform a certain way. It was the pressure I put on myself.

“But when the whistle blew (to start a match), it definitely felt weird. I was so anxious waiting for my turn on the mat that once the whistle blew, nothing else mattered. All my stress and anxiety went away.”

Over time, Emond has developed a true love of wrestling through the help of Schrauwen, Hong and Vlad and her slow emerging confidence.

“It’s my passion. I love it. It’s not something I think you can do if you don’t love it. It’s grinding hard. That’s not everyone’s style. I love the sport and take it as a learning opportunity, keep having fun and not putting pressure on myself. I like the brutality of the sport,” said Emond, who will compete next weekend at the Canadian U23 championships in Niagara Falls.

Emond certainly understands amateur wrestling now.