Gratitude was the overwhelming emotion for Tonya Verbeek this past Monday in Paris, France, when she was inducted into the United World Wrestling Hall of Fame one day after the start of the wrestling competition at the 2024 Summer Olympic Games.

“It’s nice and an opportunity to reminisce and look at the people who were behind me and supported me. Those are the things you appreciate as time passes,” the 45-year-old Grimsby native said. “It is not so much what I did on the mat, it’s the people who had an impact on me and just the joy of being able to do what I loved for so many years.”

The three-time Olympic medalist — two silvers and one bronze — began her wrestling journey with Dave Collie at Beamsville District Secondary School.

“He was the first to offer girls wrestling at Beamsville high school. And it wasn’t just that he got it started. It was his belief in me and his commitment to myself and other girls on the team. As a coach, I’m now seeing the progress within girls wrestling and the importance of teachers and coaches saying, ‘Yes I will.’ Dave took a chance and that was in the early 1990s. That says a lot about the person he is and we had Bill Smith supporting the local area and Ontario girls wrestling,” she said. “Those things matter. They really do. It’s the people who say yes and back then and even today it was men who said yes and ‘Why not girls wrestling?’ ”

The yesses continued when Verbeek resumed her wrestling career at the post secondary level at Brock.

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