Cree wrestler has her eyes set on Olympic gold [Video]

Heading home from Banting Middle School in Coquitlam, B.C. Justina Di Stasio would look through a window at children tumbling, cartwheeling and doing backwards rolls and wanted to join. 

“I thought it was gymnastics,” said Di Stasio. 

It was actually a wrestling team practising and that was the beginning of a nearly 20-year journey that has landed the 31-year-old a spot on Team Canada for the 2024 Paris Olympics. 

Di Stasio, a member of Norway House Cree Nation in Manitoba, qualified for the Olympics earlier this year by taking down Argentina’s Linda Machuca in the 76-kilogram division at the Pan American Qualifiers. 

Di Stasio said she was immediately good at wrestling when she started and was wrestling kids two years older when she was in Grade 6.

But as she got older, competitions got harder. Then, in her first …