Player’s Own Voice podcast: Justina Di Stasio in a class of her own | CBC Sports

Justina Di Stasio has to be one of the greatest wrestlers that Canada has not yet seen at an Olympic Games. 

She’s excelled at major international tournaments, time and time again, but when it comes to getting on the Canadian Olympic team, the BC veteran has hit a roadblock in the form of her Gold medallist teammate Erika Wiebe. Canada can only send one wrestler in the weight class…so that explains the history.

But Di Stasio is not one to brood on the past. She has taken the last eight years as a series of chances to learn and improve and refine her technique. And so now the Coach/Teacher/74kg wrestler has definitely got her eyes trained on Paris 2024, and it’s ‘en garde!’ to every opponent she’ll meet en route.

Chatting expansively with Anastasia Bucsis on Player’s Own Voice podcast, Di Stasio also shares her perspective as a Canadian who is half Italian and half Cree.  Food for thought: as a younger wrestler she sometimes felt that her Italian last name crowded her own comfort in talking about indigenous experience in this country. 

With the passage of time, that feeling has evolved, but throughout her career Justina Di Stasio has delightfully, authentically never swayed from representing exactly who she is: one of Canada’s greatest wrestlers, who also happens to bring two sets of cultural knowledge to the International stage.

There are transcripts of our podcasts for a hard-of-hearing audience. To listen to Justina Di Stasio, Zak Madell, Tara Llanes, Chuck Swirsky, Konrad Wasiela, Waneek Horn-Miller, Camryn Rogers, Bev Priestman, Allison Forsyth, Jason Priestley, Mimi Rahneva, Cito Gaston, Robert Parish, Aaron Brown, Kaylyn Kyle, Kurt Browning, Bianca Farella, Summer McIntosh, Beckie Sauerbrunn or any of the guests from earlier seasons, go to CBC Listen or wherever else you get your podcasts.