Brett Thoms
Pontiac March 16, 2023
Campbell’s Bay native, Genevieve Morrison, won the gold medal at Canadian Wrestling Championship in the Women’s 50 kg category after coming off a seven-year retirement.
The comeback story started in 2016 when Morrison retired from her position as an alternate on Canada’s Women’s Olympic Wrestling Team. Before that, she was in and around the Olympic Team for about 10 years.
“After retiring, I did a year or two of coaching and then I started a family,” Morrison explained. “My husband and I had three kids and settled down in Ottawa close to our parents. Then last summer I started going to a local wrestling club in Ottawa just to kind of roll around and do something for myself.”
However what started as a hobby reignited her passion for the sport, putting her on the road to the championships.
“My husband basically challenged me to actually train like an athlete again for seven months until the national championship just to kind of compete and see what would happen,” Morrison said.
The training was rigorous, involving one training session a day, with three times a week in the gym and three times on the mat. Her husband, a sports scientist, designed her training regime to be as efficient as possible, balancing conditioning, technique training and recovery time.
“We knew that training like an athlete at 34 years old after seven years removed and three kids would probably look different than at the peak of my mid-20s,” said Morrison. “I worked with my husband, a pelvic floor physiotherapist, a nutritionist and a strength and conditioning/exercise physiologist coach, so we had the whole sports science team. All of their brains were involved in finding the best balance of a quick transformation back to an athlete’s body while still managing the risk of injury and a slower recovery time.”
Going into the National Wrestling Championships in early March, which were held in Waterloo Ontario, Morrison had mixed feelings, with her confidence as a seasoned athlete clashing with her fears of coming back after a seven year hiatus.
“There’s a big part of me that felt really confident,” she said. “I know what it feels like to be well trained and well prepared for a competition. I felt fit. I felt strong. I felt like I had tactically and technically prepared very well. So I felt really ready to compete. At the same time, you know, it had been seven years since I’d set foot on a wrestling mat. So there was a part of me that was like ‘oh my gosh, like maybe it’s been too long. Maybe I am just gonna make a fool out of myself’. So it felt very vulnerable in a lot of ways.”
However, despite her fears, Morrison triumphed, taking gold and the position of Canadian Champion in the women’s 50 kg category.
Morrison will now represent Canada in the World Championship in the fall for a chance to qualify Canada for the Olympic Games and then Pan Am Championship in November.
In December, Canada will hold its Olympic qualifier, where Morrison, being the top-seated candidate to represent Canada in the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, will have to face the winner of a national competition in a best two-out-of-three competition to secure that position.
“It’s definitely a cool place to be. I mean, it’s only been six days so we’re still letting it all sink in. I’m trying to heal my body from the bumps and bruises but yeah, we’ll see what’s ahead,” she said.
Morrison was born in Shawville and lived in Campbell’s Bay until she was five before her family began moving around. However, she still has family here a frequently returns to visit them.
“It’s always been the place where I’ve gone back. We’ve moved a lot growing up and so Campbell’s Bay was kind of like the home base for any kind of Christmas or summer vacation,” she said. She now lives in the Ottawa area.
