Former Olds resident Danielle Lappage is satisfied with the silver medal she obtained during the World Wrestling Championship in Budapest, Hungary last week, even though she wonders about a key ruling that cost her the gold.
Lappage met Petra Olli of Finland in the women’s 65-kilogram (kg) final on Wednesday, Oct. 24. After tying the match 5-5, Lappage was edged 6-5.
Olli was awarded an extra point because Lappage had been cautioned for grabbing Olli’s fingers earlier in the match.
"To be honest, I don't really get what happened, because obviously l wasn't purposely trying to grab anything and they said I did, so whatever. You can't argue those kind of calls," Lappage said during an interview with the Albertan.
"It is quite a common call, but they did warn her a few times for the same thing; they were warning both of us. But I don't really know why they decided to give her a point and not the other way around, to be honest.
"But, yeah, so that did happen, and that's the point that cost me the match," she added.
However, Lappage remains philosophical about the outcome.
"That was heartbreaking, obviously, but overall, I honestly left everything out there. I didn't have any more to give, so that's all I could ask for of myself," Lappage said.
"So I did leave there overall happy with my performance and optimistic -- knowing that I can put on a world performance and I can be the best in the world, so it's motivating, going forward."
Overall, Lappage says she's pleased with her performance in Budapest.
"The first day of the competition I had four matches and I won them all," she said.
"It was against the USA, Mongolia, Azerbaijan and Russia. So that day was obviously pretty exciting. And making it to the final through doing that -- through winning those matches -- was one of the best feelings."
Lappage was also impressed with how well the championships were organized.
"Budapest is beautiful and the whole organization of everything -- the hotel, the food, the setup -- it was all pretty ideal. They did a very, very good job," she said.
"l'd only been in one world championship prior to this one and this one was -- and that was in 2014 -- and so just to see that change was pretty exciting as well, to see how much the sport is progressing and improving."
The world championships marked the end of the wrestling season.
That's a good thing, Lappage said, because it gives her time to catch up on school work. She's in second-year law school at the University of Calgary.
"I have a test that I missed last week and then I have a paper due. And I missed all the readings, so I'm just scrambling to catch up. But luckily we won't have wrestling practices, so I'll be able to put in more time than normal.
"And then we have a reading week actually in two weeks, so I'll at least be able to catch up then," she said.
"It's a good thing to have something else, you know, like, for me, I don't know what I would do without school, because it's kind of like a -- not a distraction, because it's obviously just as important to me as wrestling is -- they're both priorities in my life.
"But it's nice to be able to switch focus from one to the other so I don't get overwhelmed by one or the other.
"It's nice to have this; it's nice to be distracted with school work right now so I don't focus on the competition I just had, or look too far in the future. It's calming."
Lappage still intends to qualify for the Olympics, but those trials don't occur until early December 2019, and she doesn't anticipate competing again until January or February.
