Montreal wrestlers pursuing Olympic dreams at qualifying tournament in Mexico

At the Y Reinitz Wresting Club and the National Training Centre in Montreal, three wrestlers are preparing to realize their Olympic dreams. Stone Lewis in the 74 kilograms weight class, Alex Moore at 86 kilograms and Linda Morais at 68 kilograms are heading to Mexico for the Pan American Olympics qualifier tournament. 

“I’m pretty excited. I’ve been having some pretty good trainings. I feel confident,” said Linda Morais. “I’m ready to wrestle. So I’m excited to see how it goes.” 

“I’ve dreamed about going to the Olympics since I was a little kid. So lifelong dream, high stakes,” said Alex Moore, adding, “it’s not just the last four years. It’s not just the last two months. It’s my whole life. It’s a culmination of years and years of training.”

“With the stakes being so high, we push past our limit to, I guess, what we’ve been doing in the past. So we’ve been training even a lot harder than what we’re used to, especially knowing that the altitude is going to be a lot higher. So we’ve been training a lot of conditioning and cardio,” explained Stone Lewis.

To qualify for the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, the wrestlers will have to finish in the top two spots in their respective weight classes.

All three of these wrestlers have elite skills and impressive resumes that give them a shot at qualifying. Lewis is the 2022 Junior Nationals Gold Medalist, Moore is the 2023 Canadian champion and Morais is the 2019 world champion. 

“I couldn’t have done it without this club and this establishment. I’ve had some of the best coaches in the world and some great training partners. I’ve been here my entire life. So I couldn’t have done it without them,” said Moore.

“It’s really improved my wrestling because they’re not focused on just the outcome. They’re focused on making sure everything is perfect. All our technique is perfect,” said Lewis. 

The three wrestlers will be competing from February 28 to March 1 and are hoping to come out on top against some of the best wrestlers in North and South America in order to punch their ticket to Paris. 

“I want to really badly. So I was close four years ago. And yeah, it’s eluded me. So I want to really badly,” said Moore. 

“That’s a dream I’ve had since I was a little girl. I missed out four years ago, so I’ve been in the same position I was four years ago and I wasn’t able to qualify and that was pretty heartbreaking. So hopefully things go better this year, but it’s been a long term goal of mine for as long as I can remember,” said Morais.

“I started with Judo, and that was the dream to make the Olympics for Judo, but I switched over to wrestling at a very young age, at 12. And from that day forward, I think I’ve been dreaming about this for my entire life,” said Lewis.