Danielle Lappage of Olds has qualified for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, after dethroning the highest-ranked 63-kilogram wrestler in the country, Braxton Stone-Papadopoulos at the Canadian Wrestling Team Trials.
The 25-year-old, who trains with the Burnaby Mountain Wrestling Club, will become the first athlete from Olds to compete at the Games.
“I honestly don't think there's a word to describe it ... It's something I've been dreaming about and working towards since I started wrestling, since I was 13 years old,” Lappage said.
At Millennium Place in Sherwood Park from Dec. 4-5, Lappage felled one opponent after another.
First in the pool competition, then the ladder, where she had to defeat the third-ranked wrestler, then the second, before squaring off against the No. 1 seed in a best-of-three series.
It was one of the most highly-anticipated bouts of the tournament, with Canada already having qualified for Rio in the 63-kg freestyle, thanks to Stone-Papadopoulos, who finished fifth at the world wrestling championship in September.
At age 20, Team Impact Wrestling Club's Stone-Papadopoulos is a gold medalist at the 2015 Pan Am Games and bronze medal winner at the 2014 Commonwealth Games. She had won her first senior national title as a 17-year-old.
Lappage herself is a 2014 senior Canadian champion, Commonwealth gold medallist and 2014 FISU World University Championship winner.
For her entourage – family, friends, teammates, all taking up multiple rows of bleachers – this was what they came to see. And they were loud, right from her walk-up to the mat, during matches and most noticeably, afterward.
“It was crazy. It was crazy. It was amazing,” Lappage said. “Warming up in the back, I was exhausted but everybody gives me energy. You hear that crowd and it's like, if you don't do it for yourself, at least do it for them. Honestly, it was the perfect day. And literally, everybody that I love is here. It was crazy.”
The two wrestlers gave them a cardiac-arresting first round.
Stone-Papadopoulos was the first and only one to score on Lappage all weekend, taking a 1-0 lead by pushing her out of bounds.
Lappage responded with a takedown, laced up her opponent's ankles and rolled her over to take a 4-1 lead. A failed coach's challenge from Stone-Papadopoulos extended it to 5-1 by period's end.
Wrestling rules dictate that in a tied match, the last athlete to score holds the advantage and Stone-Papadopoulos had closed the gap to 6-4 in the second.
But time ran out. Lappage was one win away.
“After that first match she had with her, I was shaking so bad I couldn't put change in the vending machine,” said her father Bob.
In the rematch, Lappage took a 4-0 lead into the second period. Stone-Papadopoulos scored two single points to make it 4-2, with a minute-and-a-half still to go.
Lappage extended the lead to 6-2. With 22 seconds left, she scrambled around to Stone-Papadopoulos's flank for another two points as tears, laughter and hugs erupted in the stands.
It took six straight victories for Lappage to come all the way from the pool to achieve her childhood dream, with little girls and strangers asking for her autograph.
“I knew that one was going to be a battle ... but my coach, Mike Jones, told me it's just a match, you do this every day, just wrestle. I think that was the best advice I got,” she said.
“I didn't really have a game plan because (Stone-Papadopoulos) is different from anybody I've ever wrestled ... but I knew whatever position we were in, I could scramble and I could work from there.”
Olds High School's George Grant, who coached Lappage during middle school, was another member of her inner circle who made the trip. He'll soon be making another next summer.
“Oh God, this is amazing. How many times do you get to say you've coached an Olympian? I'm kind of speechless,” he said. “I'm so happy for her and her family. And the support she had here today with all the people was just incredible.”
Two-time Olympian Clive Llewellyn was Lappage's club coach in Calgary. He is also past president and director of Wrestling Canada Lutte. He likes her chances for gold in Rio.
“She's focused. She will not accept losing. She just won't accept it. That's why she could win the world juniors and that's why she's capable of winning the Olympic gold. Bear in mind, there are wrestlers all over the world who are solid. She has to put it together,” he said.
“(She) is capable of winning. We just have to talk about her winning it and being there. But she has a lot of work to do because she has to still be even better.”
Llewellyn said this was the strongest he's ever seen Lappage, a result of some major adversity she had to overcome.
Just over a year ago, she had surgery to repair the torn anterior cruciate ligament in her right knee. She couldn't run or wrestle and it took five months before she could resume regular training. But what she could do was lift, hitting personal bests in the weight room. The experience gave her physical strength, but mental toughness too.
“I knew coming in here, I was the strongest I've ever been. I knew I was the leanest I've ever been,” she said. “I was stronger mentally than I've ever been before so I knew I did everything that I could possibly do ... for this tournament and I'm so happy it all paid off.”
"I honestly don't think there's a word to describe it ... It's something I've been dreaming about and working towards since I started wrestling, since I was 13 years old." DANIELLE LAPPAGE
