Coquitlam wrestler Justina Di Stasio waited 18 days for her Olympic moment in Paris.
It lasted one match.
Di Stasio lost her first round match in the women’s 76kg category at the Grand Palais Ephemere in Champ de Mars to Turkey’s Yasemin Adar Yigit by a score of 8-2. It was the second-to-last day of competition at the 2024 Summer Games.
After several moments of feeling each other out with neither wrestler able to execute a takedown, Yagit registered the first point.
Di Stasio then scored two when she was able to repel an attempted takedown by Yagit to take the advantage.
But Yagit countered to assert control.
At one point the match was paused after Di Stasio appeared to get poked in the right eye. She also appeared to favour her ankle after being grappled to the edge of the ring by Yagit.
After the match, Di Stasio said she was still proud of her effort.
“I wanted a better result today,” she told Wrestling Canada Lutte. “I could not have prepared any better.”
Di Stasio, who won the 72kg world championship in 2018, grew up in Coquitlam and began her wrestling journey while attending Banting Middle School. The 31-year-old is a member of the Burnaby Mountain Wrestling Club.
Also Saturday, Di Stasio’s teammate at Burnaby Mountain, Ana Godinez Gonzalez, who’s also from Coquitlam, was defeated 11-0 in her bronze medal match in the 62kg category by Norway’s Grace Jacob Bullen.
Godinez Gonzalez had been defeated in Friday’s quarter-final match by Japan’s Sakura Motoki, but advanced to the repechage round after Motocki won her semi-final and advanced to the final which she ultimately won.
In the repechage early Saturday, Godinez Gonzalez beat Romania’s Kriszta Incze to gain a chance to battle Bullen for bronze.
Godinez Gonzalez had beaten Bullen in a previous match in June.
“It is obviously disappointing for her,” he coach, Raj Virdi, told Wrestling Canada Lutte. “For every athlete, this is the pinnacle of all sport — coming to the Olympic Games. Coming up short is very sad for an athlete.”
