A pair of sisters from South Surrey are hoping their passion and talent for wrestling will take them to France.
With their eyes set on the prize of competing in the 2024 Olympics in Paris, Earl Marriott Secondary alumni Karla and Ana Godinez Gonzalez only recently returned to the Semiahmoo Peninsula after competing in the 2023 World Wrestling Championship in Belgrade, Serbia, last month.
Despite making it to the bronze-medal match in the 55-kilogram category, a year after capturing bronze in the same event, Karla, 25, finished in fifth in Serbia, while Ana, 23, (an under-23 world champion in 2021) competing in the 62-kg category, finished 13th.
But one event doesn’t make the wrestler.
And both sisters understand that well.
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“When you work so hard for something and your dreams don’t come true, and you feel like a failure or a disappointment, but you still you lean on the process of it rather than the outcome,” Ana, who also won a Commonwealth Games silver medal in 2022, a U23 World (2022) bronze medal and a Pan-American Championships (2023), explained.
“Because the process of it – even if you don’t get to main goal, you’re succeeding in the process… I say the challenge is putting that into perspective for yourself. The people who are watching don’t see the whole process.”
Both sisters also played for, and studied at, Simon Fraser University, and while Karla still studies there – she has only one more course to complete before graduating – both have been working hard at wrestling in recent years, with Burnaby Mountain and with Wrestling Canada Lutte, the national Olympic wrestling body.
While winning isn’t everything, the two siblings have indeed, won their fair share of titles and medals across the globe, and spent their summer and last month travelling and competing in wrestling competitions.
Karla, who sometimes competes in the 55 kg category, also competes in the 53 kg category, which she plans to do for the Canadian Olympic trials at the end of this year, while Ana has always competed in the 62 kg category.
“Alone this summer – we were competing in ranking series plus some smaller competitions that weren’t part of the ranking series – we went to Italy and from there, to Paris to see the 2024 Olympics venue, then we were invited to Sweden, then Croatia, then Turkistan, then Hungary, then Poland,” Karla said, listing just some of the places they’ve been able to travel as wrestlers.
They credit their eldest sister – there’s four sisters total – for getting them into wrestling, when they were both still attending school at EMS.
The pair, who both still live in South Surrey, enjoy practicing and working out together, too.
“It’s convenient!” Ana said with a laugh.
Karla agreed.
“We always go with each other… we usually have the same goals, the same tournaments coming up, and we have the same schedule, so we’re both getting ready for the same thing,” she said.
Building their strength, as wrestlers, is always key, they noted.
“There are different components to getting ready for competition. With me, I look at diet more than Ana,” Karla said, explaining that they always strive to eat healthy, but when she goes down to competing at the 53-kg level instead of the 55-kg category, she has to pay closer attention to what she eats. “Our weight classes are different, but we both (focus on) strength and conditioning, and we both do wrestling practice at least six times a week. Then there’s the mental aspect as well… and then obviously recovery,” said Karla.
They share their next goals as well: winning at the Canadian Olympic wrestling trials in Edmonton Dec. 15-17. After that, they hope to represent Canada at the Olympic qualifier, which will be held in Acapulco, Mexico, in early 2024.
“I love competing. I still get nervous and I still want to win, but I just find the joy and know that not everyone has the chance to live life as an athlete… I think it’s amazing, Ana said.
Karla concurred.
“We put so much work and time into this,” she said.
“You do feel nervous, but when you get there, you embrace it… you’ve been working hard and putting all this work in – I feel lucky to be able to do this and represent our country.”