(Ottawa, Canada) – Wrestling Canada Lutte (WCL) is pleased to announce that Leigh Vierling will advance with WCL as the association’s new High Performance Director.

Leigh has been instrumental in developing and successfully leading the women’s high performance program since 1996, first as a head coach at numerous Games and World Championships and since 2005 as WCL’s Women’s National Coach. Since 1993, the Women’s National Team program has produced 40 Senior World Championship medals and 6 Olympic medals.

Vierling is a NCCP level 4 certified wrestling coach and Chartered Professional Coach (ChPC), and holds degrees in kinesiology and education. He is also a member of United World Wrestling’s Coaches Commission.

“Canadian wrestling has had an extremely successful history and I look forward toward working with WCL and the Canadian wrestling community on building an even brighter future,” said Vierling. “It is an honour to be given this responsibility and I look forward to continuing to push the envelope with our community and stakeholders to ensure sustainability and even greater performances.”

At this important point in the development of wrestling in Canada, Executive Director Tamara Medwidsky, spoke of WCL’s great opportunity in hiring Vierling.

“Leigh’s experience in the sport of wrestling, as a high performance athlete and coach, has given him the important insight needed to gain an understanding of all the factors necessary to produce podium results,” said Medwidsky. “Leigh has worked diligently over the years to develop strong working relationships with coaches in the domestic and international wrestling community as well as with key stakeholders and high performance partners within the Canadian sport system.”

Following recommendations from external reviews of WCL’s high performance and human resource structures, the Board of Directors approved the move towards hiring a Technical Leader that is empowered with decision-making authority to lead and manage the high performance program.

As High Performance Director, Vierling will be responsible for the leadership of WCL’s high performance program, including men’s and women’s freestyle. This includes the development, implementation and monitoring of all technical aspects of WCL’s High Performance (HP) program and associated HP development (NextGen) programs, grounded on Long-Term-Athlete-Development (LTAD) principles. Working closely with international team coaches, sport science & medicine staff and HP staff, Leigh will continue to develop the system, plans and accountabilities necessary for Canada’s continued success at upcoming Olympic and World Championships.

“Leigh has knowledge of our system and the individuals that make up our system, and the unique ability to navigate between the two to bridge our HP program and system gaps,” said Medwidsky. “We are excited to continue building the rest of the HP team in the coming months as we approach the start of the new 2020 quadrennial.

Vierling will begin his HPD duties effective immediately and can be reached via email at [email protected]. He will continue to be based in Calgary and will travel as required by his new role.

Please join us in welcoming Leigh to his new role as High Performance Director at Wrestling Canada Lutte.