'It’s just totally surreal': Gold-medal Olympian returns home to Calgary
The Tokyo Olympics ended in gold for Kasia Gruchalla-Wesierski, but she almost didn’t have the chance to earn the medal.
Gruchalla-Wesierski and her team snagged gold in the women’s eight rowing final, the first time for Canada in 29 years in that event.
“It’s just totally surreal… I just can’t quite believe it,” said Gruchalla-Wesierski.
The 30-year-old recalls the team starting off strong in the race.
“Ok, we're beating really fast crews out of the start, this is a really, really great way to start a race,” said Gruchalla-Wesierski.
“The middle 1,000’s kind of our bread and butter and so once we were ahead there I was like, ‘Nobody’s going to walk through us today.’”
“We could see Kasia in the boat in quite a lot of the shots,” said Tad Gruchalla-Wesierski, Kasia’s father. “Christina’s going, ‘There’s Kasia, we’re doing great.’”
Gruchalla-Wesierski had to push herself especially hard to make it to the Olympics, six weeks before the finals, she was in a cycling accident.
“The x-rays came in, she said her clavicle’s broken, and I just thought, ‘That’s it, her dream is done,’” said Tad Gruchalla-Wesierski.
Instead of giving up on her Olympic dream, Gruchalla-Wesierski’s team decided she would get surgery.
After 57 stitches and recovery time, the rower worked to re-earn her spot on the boat. She arrived in Tokyo 10 days after the rest of her team did.
“Luckily I have an amazing support team within Rowing Canada and a bunch of other surgeons in my circle,” said Gruchalla-Wesierski.
“We're just so proud of her and so grateful that things worked out,” added Tad Gruchalla-Wesierski.
The rower arrived home in Calgary to the cheers of friends and family, celebrating her win.
“I'm just so excited to see everybody and to share this moment with them,” said Gruchalla-Wesierski.
She planned to indulge in sleep, beer and poutine, along with spending time with family and friends.
With files from CTV News Calgary’s Kathy Le
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Cargo ship had engine maintenance in port before Baltimore bridge collapse, officials say
The cargo ship that lost power and crashed into a bridge in Baltimore underwent 'routine engine maintenance' in port beforehand, the U.S. Coast Guard said Wednesday.
A Nigerian woman reviewed some tomato puree online. Now she faces jail
A Nigerian woman who wrote an online review of a can of tomato puree is facing imprisonment after its manufacturer accused her of making a “malicious allegation” that damaged its business.
Far North police 'dispatch' polar bear stalking schoolyard
Police and local hunters in an Ontario Far North First Nation community have “dispatched” a polar that was showing abnormal behaviour and treating the area as a hunting ground.
Donald Trump assails judge and his daughter after gag order in N.Y. hush-money criminal case
Donald Trump lashed out Wednesday at the New York judge who put him under a gag order that bars him from commenting publicly about witnesses, prosecutors, court staff and jurors in his upcoming hush-money criminal trial.
Families shocked after Niagara Falls hotel cancels bookings made year in advance of solar eclipse
After having the foresight to book their Niagara Falls hotel rooms more than a year in advance, several families planning to take in the solar eclipse next month were shocked to find out their reservations had been cancelled.
B.C. rescuers face 'high likelihood' of failure to reunite orphaned orca with pod
The race to reunite an orphaned orca calf that’s stuck in a shallow lagoon with a neighbouring pod has entered its fifth day, and a marine scientist says the clock is ticking.
Video shows police interrupting auto theft in progress outside Toronto home
New video footage obtained by CP24 shows the attempted theft of a vehicle in a North York driveway earlier this month that was ultimately interrupted by police.
Majority of Canadians believe in life after death: Angus Reid survey
A new survey from the Angus Reid Institute has found that a majority of Canadians believe in some form of life after death, a proportion that has held steady for decades.
MyPillow, owned by U.S. election denier Mike Lindell, formally evicted from Minnesota warehouse
A court ordered the eviction Wednesday of MyPillow from a suburban Minneapolis warehouse that it formerly used.