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Wrestling
16 Time Canadian Champion (3 Junior, 8 Senior, 3 CIS)
11 time Canadian World Team Member
Two Time World Bronze Medalist 2009, 2013
World University Champion 2008
Commonwealth Games Champion 2010
Pan Am Champion 2013
Alternate Canadian Olympic Team 2012
 An
all-round exceptional athlete, Justine Bouchard has distinguished
herself in the sport of wrestling. In her seventeen year amateur
wrestling career, that started in Wetaskiwin when she was twelve,
Justine has amassed an amazing record. Besides twenty-six provincial
gold medals, Justine has won sixteen National Titles. She has won those
championships at every level starting with the Under 16 age group and
progressing to the Senior Level as well as at the Canadian University
Championships (CIS). Additionally, Justine has been the University
World Champion, the Commonwealth Games Champion, and has won the gold at
the Pam Am championships. Justine has also been on Canada’s World Team,
three times as a Junior team member and eight times as a Senior
Competitor. In 2012 she was an alternate on the Canada Olympic Team.
Her incredible competitive resume makes her more than deserving of being
inducted into the Wetaskiwin & County Sports Hall of Fame.
All-Round Athlete Earns
Athlete of the Year Honour
Justine started wrestling
in 1998 at Queen Elizabeth Jr. High when she was in grade seven. In her
second year of wrestling, she captured the gold medal at the Alberta
Winter Games (2000). Justine won her first National Wrestling
Championship when she was fifteen and in grade nine. By the time she
graduated from High School, Justine had won four national titles, two at
the Cadet level (under 16), one at the Juvenile Level (under 18) and one
at the Junior Level (under 20). Throughout her junior and senior high
school years Justine also found the time to compete in other sports
including soccer, swimming, football, as well as track and field.
No wonder that Justine was named Wetaskiwin Composite High School’s
Female Athlete of the Year in 2004, her grade twelve year.
Competitive Seventeen
Year Wrestling
Career Garners World Stage Recognition
 After high school Justine
attended the University of Calgary and became a valuable member of the
women’s wrestling team (2004-2009). In her five year university career,
she was the CanWest Conference Champion four times and the silver
medalist once. At the CIS National Championships she was gold medalist
three times, silver medalist once and bronze medalist once. The
pinnacle of her University wrestling career came in 2008. Competing in
Greece for Canada, Justine won the University World Championship.
Justine also competed at the National Championships during her years at
the U of C and she won three championships at the Junior Level (under
20) and two at the Senior Level. Those championships qualified her for
berths on the respective Junior and Senior Canadian World Teams that
competed at the World Championships.
Championships Name Justine
the
Most Outstanding Canadian Wrestler
 After graduating from
university in 2009, Justine continued wrestling until her retirement in
2015. As a Senior Wrestler she won five more National Championships for
a total of sixteen National Titles, an impressive record. At the 2011
Canadian Championships Justine was named the Most Outstanding Wrestler,
an acknowledgement of her ability and success. As a senior competitor
for Canada on the world stage Justine was twice a Senior World Bronze
Medalist (2009 and 2012). Another significant accomplishment of
Justine’s occurred when she captured the gold medal at the Commonwealth
Games in 2010. More achievements came in the Pan Am Championships where
Justine won a silver medal 2011, a Bronze Medal in 2012 and a Gold Medal
in 2013. The consummation of Justine’s wrestling career was being named
an alternate for the 2012 Canadian Olympic team in the London Olympics.
All in all a career to be extremely proud of!
Achievements Beyond Sports
For her achievements and
ability Justine was rewarded with the with the Bob McLeod Scholarship
(2005) and the Jimmy Condon Scholarships (2004-2009). She was also a
CANfund athlete and an Investors Group recipient. These awards require
that you keep up with your grade point average as well as show
exceptional achievement in your sport. Justine has also done some
coaching and clinics to pass on her skills to younger wrestlers and
aspires to do more in the future.
As a world class wrestler,
Justine has brought recognition to herself, her family, her community,
her province and her country. To compete at the highest level in her
sport required hours of practice, many sacrifices, much determination
and dedication as well as an inborn athletic talent. Because of these
attributes and her accomplishments Justine is indeed a role model for
the young people of Wetaskiwin. It is an honour to induct her into the
Wetaskiwin & County Sports Hall of Fame.
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