Olympic gold medallist Carol Huynh is the first Canadian woman to win an Olympic gold medal in wrestling.
In the late 1970s, Huynh’s parents fled Vietnam as refugees. The family was sponsored by the local United Church and they settled in Hazelton, British Columbia, where they worked hard to support their five children. Huynh began her freestyle wrestling career in high school, and she continued wrestling while studying at Simon Fraser University where, in 2004, she completed a degree in psychology with a minor in kinesiology.
Huynh won a bronze medal at the world championships in 2000, and in 2001 she reached the finals, winning silver. In 2005, she won another world championship bronze medal and placed first at Universiade.
Huynh's first Olympic experience came in 2004 (the debut of women's wrestling) when she failed to qualify for the team but served as the training partner for fellow wrestler Lyndsay Belisle. After winning the gold medal at the Pan-Am Games in 2007, Huynh was determined to compete at the 2008 Olympics so she moved from Burnaby to Calgary, seeking new coaching philosophies and training partners. At the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Huynh was not favoured to win a medal, but she defeated the reigning two-time world champion, Japan's Chiharu Icho, and won the gold medal for Canada.
At the medal presentation, Huynh's show of emotion endeared her to all Canadians as she shed tears of happiness, blew kisses to her family, and was carried from the podium by her coaches.
Learn more:
Carol Huynh in The Canadian Encyclopedia
Carol Huynh