BONNYVILLE – Lining the hallways, wearing red and white and waving coloured drawings of Canadian flags, Duclos students bubbled with excitement as they waited to greet Canadian Olympic gold medallist Kasia Gruchalla-Wesierski on last Tuesday.
“It was overwhelming in the best way possible,” said Gruchalla-Wesierski after her parade through the school.
Gruchalla-Wesierski tells Lakeland This Week her visit at Duclos School is the first school visit she has made since winning gold with Team Canada in the women’s eight rowing event at the 2020 Toyko Olympic Games held in the summer of 2021.
Although the rower says she had expected the excitement from the students and staff, she had not expected to get quite so emotional.
“I have done quite a few online presentations and speaking events with adults since the Games, but it's not the same,” she said. “You forget the impact you can have until you visit students and schools.”
Prior to Gruchalla-Wesierski's arrival, students watched the race that saw Team Canada beat the New Zealand team earning the gold medal for Canada. And once she arrived, Duclos students were bursting with questions and stories of their own to share with the Calgary-based Olympian.
Walking down the halls, students greeted her by saying “Hi BFF” and “I want to win a medal too!”
All the comments brought a smile to the Canadian champion’s face.
Speaking to a Kindergarten class, Gruchalla-Wesierski told them she was just five years old when she watched the Olympic Games with her parents and decided she was going to be an Olympic athlete one day.
“It is really inspiring for kids to know that they can have dreams to be an Olympic athlete,” she said.
“If you have a dream, there is always a way to get there and if you work really, really hard that dream is always possible, no matter what people tell you.”
What brought the gold medallist to Bonnyville was her local connection to the community through relatives who both work and learn at Duclos School.
