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Gryphon Wrestler Sets Her Sights on the 2004 Olympics

You'd Expect Tara Hedican to be Larger Than Life

By Lori Bona Hunt Published in Guelph Alumnus Magazine Falll 2003 issue 10/2/03

In 2001, the fourth-year history student became the first Canadian woman to win a world junior wrestling championship. Last year, she received the Tom Longboat Award, a national honour recognizing aboriginal excellence in sport. This year, she won a gold medal at the Pan American Championships and a silver medal at the Commonwealth Wrestling Championships. A two-time Canadian junior national champion and three-time Canadian senior national silver medallist, she also represented Canada this spring at the Hans von Zons International Wrestling Tournament in Germany and the Austrian Ladies Open in Austria, events that featured top international wrestlers around the world.

For some, such credentials might conjure up images of a towering muscle-bound athlete, but in Hedican's case, nothing could be further from the truth. Short and small, with a quiet voice and shy smile, she is a refreshing reminder that stereotypes are usually just that.

Wrestling, she says, is a sport that relies as much on intellectual strength as physical prowess. "That's what I like about it. When you're out there on the mat, it's just you and your opponent. You don't have a team with you. I just take it one point at a time, one match at a time."

That's the secret of Hedican's success, says Doug Cox, who coaches both the Guelph Wrestling Club and the Gryphon team. "Tara is strong and her technique is good, but her mental state is the best."

Along with high school coach Mark Howlett and fellow Guelph Wrestling Club coach Dave Mair, Cox has worked with Hedican since her mid-teens. "Once you're among the top 100 wrestlers, you're all basically at the same level and it becomes a mental game," he says. "This is where Tara shines. She thrives on competition. I think she likes the pressure."

During her years at U of G, where women's wrestling has been a varsity sport since 1997, Hedican has captured gold at both the Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) and the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) championships and was named most outstanding wrestler at both competitions. She won gold at the Dave Shultz Memorial Tournament in Colorado and was the 2001 Junior National's most outstanding wrestler and the senior provincial 2001 champion. She was also the OUA's nominee this year for a Borden, Ladner and Gervais LLP (BLG) award, which stresses the importance of athletics to a university education. Her U of G honours have included being named Rookie of the Year, Female Athlete of the Year and Most Valuable Player.

But there's one honour she's longing to add to her resume an Olympic medal. "When I was still in high school, I told my coach: 'I want to be in the Olympics.' Women's wrestling wasn't even on its way to becoming an Olympic sport, but he just said: 'Go for it.'"

The 2004 Olympics in Athens will be the first games to include women's wrestling, and Hedican wants to be there. First, however, she must compete at the Olympic trials in Alberta in December. "From now until the trials, I will go 'undercover,' so to speak, and put all my attention towards being a student of wrestling."

Hedican, who is sponsored by Rowe Farm Meats, which she has incorporated into her diet, is hoping to attend as many tournaments as possible to prepare for the trials and the Olympics.

"I'm looking for additional sponsors and support in the upcoming year to help make that possible," she says, adding that the University has been a strong supporter, most recently by renovating the wrestling practice room.

Cox, himself a former Olympian, believes Hedican has what it takes to compete at that level. "I knew it from the start. Here was this 15-year-old kid showing up five nights a week to practise with the university students. She was always here on time, ready to get the job done."

Hedican, who is the daughter of U of G professor Ed Hedican of the Department Sociology and Anthropology, has been wrestling since she was 12. She discovered the sport by chance. "I was in junior high and heard they were looking for girls for the wrestling team, so I just thought I'd give it a try."

She didn't realize just how good she was until high school, when "I hardly ever lost any matches. I have a bit of natural talent, but the main reason I do well is that I work a lot harder than most people do."

She practises six days a week, in addition to running about six hours a week and weight training before competitions. She competes in the 64-kilogram weight class.

"Wrestlers come in all different shapes and sizes. Being short can be an advantage, being tall can be an advantage. There is room for all body types. It just depends on what you do with your body type."

Although she's always understood the importance of training and mental discipline, Hedican has only recently begun to realize what it means to be a champion. With each medal and award, there are more requests for speaking engagements and television appearances, and she was a torch bearer at the Ontario Winter Games. After winning the Longboat Award, she began to understand the effect her accomplishments might have on other aboriginal athletes. "I want to be someone other aboriginal kids can look up to," she says.

Hedican, whose mother is Ojibwa, was a flag bearer for the North American Indigenous Games in Winnipeg, and last year, she flew into her reserve north of Thunder Bay to speak at a Chiefs of Ontario Conference. She also attended an Ontario Youth Powwow in Hagersville and was on a panel at the Canadian Indigenous Native Studies at U of T.

For Cox, seeing Hedican flourish in this new role is more satisfying than any of her athletic successes. "When I first met her, she was so shy, she would look at the ground when you talked to her. Now she's very different. That's what's so great about sports C they can convert a kid from being shy to being self-confident by building up his or her self-esteem. With Tara, that's the greatest thing for me to have witnessed."