OTTAWA — Wrestling Canada Lutte (WCL) is proud to announce the 23 athletes, along with coaches, support staff and officials, that will represent Canada at the 2023 Senior Pan-American (Pan-Am) Championships, May 3-6, in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

The 2023 team features many reigning and past national champions, along with numerous international medalists. In total, seven different provinces are represented with Ontario leading the way with eight representatives.

“Wrestling Canada Lutte is sending a strong team to the 2023 Pan-American Championships.  We have athletes who are World and Pan-American medalists, including three previous World Champions. We also have a few newcomers who will be experiencing their first international senior competition,” said Chris Woodcroft, WCL High Performance Director. “This event will provide valuable lessons in our lead up to the Senior World Championships, in September in Belgrade, Serbia, as the 2023 Senior World Championships are our first Olympic qualifier on our road to Paris 2024.”

Leading the way on the women’s side is four-time Pan-Am Championships gold medalist (2015-17, 2020), 2019 Pan-Am Games gold medalist, and 2018 World Champion Justina Di Stasio. In 2022, Di Stasio, from Burnaby, BC, and the Burnaby Mountain WC, continued to add to her impressive resume. She captured gold at the Commonwealth Games and a bronze at the Pan-Am Championships. She will look to continue her momentum with another medal at these Championships as she sets her sights on qualifying for the 2024 Olympics.

Two more past world champions will also represent the maple leaf with U23 Champions Alex Town (2018) and Ana Godinez Gonzalez (2021) competing. Town, from Toronto and London-Western WC, comes into the event after taking gold at the 2023 Ibrahim Moustafa Ranking Series earlier this year. Meanwhile, Godinez Gonzalez, from Surrey, BC, and Burnaby Mountain WC, capped an impressive 2022 with a silver at the Commonwealth Games and bronze at the U23 Worlds.

On the men’s side, one of the big success stories from 2022 was Nishan Randhawa. Randhawa, from Abbotsford, BC, and Burnaby Mountain WC had a strong performance and captured gold at the Commonwealth Games. Randhawa is a former junior Pan-Am gold and senior Pan-Am bronze medalist and will look to return to the podium in 2023.

He’ll be joined by a trio of bronze medalists from those same Commonwealth Games who will all be looking for medals at the Pan-Ams. The list includes: Darth Capellan, from Coquitlam, BC, and Burnaby Mountain WC; Jasmit Phulka, from Abbotsford, BC, and Burnaby Mountain WC; and Alex Moore, from Montreal and the Montreal NTC.

Accompanying the athletes is the team’s coaching and support staff led by Woodcroft. The coaches include: Dave McKay, Dave Collie, Dave Spinney, Owen Dawkins and Raj Virdi. The athletic therapist will be Jessica Pawlik. Canada will also have five officials at the event including: Ed Zinger, Marcia Chiasson, Demetra Koutsopodiotis-Gathier, Curtis Leung and Gary Bird.

For more information on the 2023 Senior Pan-American Championships or to follow Canada’s athletes during the event, visit: https://uww.org/event/pan-american-championships-17

2023 Senior Pan-American Championships Team