A triple medalist at the World Championships since the start of her career, Linda Morais has never participated in the Olympic Games. The verb tense of this sentence will now have to be written in the future tense, because the 30-year-old athlete has finally obtained his first Olympic ticket.
Saturday, at the last chance Olympic qualifying tournament presented in Istanbul, the adopted Montrealer defeated the Romanian Alexandra Nicoleta Anghel in her play-off match which would determine which of the two would go to the Olympic Games in Paris. Morais had the best 4-3 in this duel between the two bronze medalists.
“It was her last chance to go to the Games. And I’m so proud that she finally succeeded! » Underlined his coach David Zilberman in a tone that went hand in hand with his words.
“Linda was in control and there was no danger for her in the end. She was strong, she knew what she was doing and I had full confidence in her ability to win. She was able to develop different kinds of confidence. She is a strong competitor. »
In her first fight of the day, the 30-year-old wrestler first got the better of Bulgarian Mimi Hristova 14-4.
On Friday, the athlete from Ontario defeated Danute Domikaityte, of Lithuania, in her first fight of the tournament, then Nabira Esenbaeva, of Uzbekistan. She then suffered a loss to China’s Zhou Feng in the quarterfinals before rebounding with a 10-0 repechage win over South Korea’s Ohyoung Ha.
Feng and Indian Nisha Nisha also qualified.
Morais has an extensive international track record. She was crowned world champion under 59 kg in 2019, in addition to being a bronze medalist in under 68 kg in 2022 and under 60 kg in 2016. She was also a silver medalist in the Under 68kg at the 2022 Commonwealth Games.
Only participation in the Olympic Games was missing from his list.
In a text published by Sportcom three years ago to the day, the wrestler reflected on her failure of not being able to qualify for the Tokyo Games.
“There have been several elements in the last year that have been difficult to digest, but in the end, it makes us stronger and allows us to bounce back by showing resilience,” she explained. I will have to mourn (the Tokyo Games), but I can still learn a lot from my performance and my competition. Every time we lose, we learn something. »
No doubt, her learning over the last three years will have enabled her to finally be present at the big meeting.
Lewis and Yeats eliminated
Montreal’s Stone Lewis saw his career come to an end in the qualifying round of the men’s freestyle wrestling under 74 kg following his 12-0 defeat against Ukrainian Vadym Tsurkan.
John Yeats, also from Montreal, suffered the same fate in Greco-Roman wrestling under 77 kg after losing 10-1 to Lithuanian Paulius Galkinas in the round of 16.
Remember that Alex Moore had already secured his place in Paris in the under 86 kg freestyle wrestling table last March at the Pan-American Olympic qualifications held in Acapulco, Mexico.