The next three months or so are going to be very busy ones for former Olds resident Danielle Lappage as she prepares for -- and competes in -- some of the biggest wrestling tournaments in the world.
Earlier this month, Lappage took first place in the 65 kilogram (kg) class during the Non-Olympic Weight Trials in Guelph, Ont. As a result, she earned a spot on the Canadian national team and will compete in the World Championships Oct. 17-21 in Budapest, Hungary.
Before that, Lappage, who now attends the University of Calgary, will wrestle at a tournament in Poland in early September.
Between now and then, she plans to train hard for those opportunities during a couple of training camps in August.
Lappage won bronze during the 2018 Grand Prix of Spain freestyle wrestling competition July 14-15. However, Lappage says she could have done even better.
"I ended up losing to an American, placing third. It was a very close match (the score was 3-3)," she said in an email.
"I had beaten her earlier this year, so it was disappointing," she wrote. "It was just a moment of bad positioning on my part, which cost me the match."
Nonetheless, Lappage said she still loves competing in the sport.
Lappage's experiences this year have given her some ideas about what to work on during next month's training camps as she prepares for those matches in Poland and Hungary.
"I think just working on what I've been working on lately," she said during an interview with the Albertan. "Just setups and keeping the pace high for the entire duration of the match.
"And just really focusing in on the mental aspect going into each and every practice, and hopefully this will translate into the next competition."
"It has to be six minutes with no mistakes, essentially. So it's always getting better and working on what you're good and bad at."
The upcoming matches and the one earlier this month in Spain involve travelling long distances. Lappage was asked if that travel affected her performance in Madrid.
"I don't think that really negatively influenced me at all, because I was feeling good the day of and all that," she said, adding the team will likely get to Poland and Hungary early so the team can become acclimatized.
Lappage is still taking law at the University of Calgary. She admits she'll lose some class time in early September and October for the Polish tournament and world championships respectively.
She has a plan for that.
"I think I'm going to do part-time school for two years until I'm done wrestling, and then finish in four years instead of three, just because it was really difficult to do all the travelling last year and to do full-time school," she says.
"The university -- the law department anyway -- they're really supportive of me and they've been very flexible."
By that time it will be time to get ready for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.
And as the Albertan reported earlier, Lappage still plans to qualify for the Games again. She made the Canadian team for the 2016 Olympics in Rio, but bowed out of competition after tearing a hamstring while warming up before a match.
If she makes the team for the 2020 Summer Olympics and does well, Lappage says she'll likely retire from the sport.
"I never say never, but that's a plan. After I'm done school, I'd have to do a year of articling. So that would be almost impossible to do while I'm still competing," she said.
"So I think if everything goes according to plan, I'll have gotten all I've wanted to out of the sport and I'll be ready to move on from it."
At that point, Lappage may go back into coaching. She did a little bit of that earlier while at Simon Fraser University, where she studied criminology.
"Maybe I'll do a little (coaching)," Lappage said. "Hopefully I'll use this law degree. But we'll see. I do like coaching and I did coach at SFU for a while and I did like it, so we'll see. Who knows what the future has in store?"
"I am always so thankful that I am healthy and am able to compete again," Lappage said in her email, noting she was not able to do so a year ago as she was still recuperating from her injury.
"I continue to see improvements in my wrestling and am excited for my future in the sport," Lappage wrote. Overall, I am very proud of myself."
