Slinn is the real deal
Feb. 3, 2010 - Regina Leader-Post
By Ian Hamilton
Leo McGee remembers the day he ran across Jasmine Slinn.
"She was running around Douglas Park, training for the (2005) Canada Games," recalled McGee, the head coach of the University of Regina Cougars wrestling teams. "It was a scorching hot day and she was out running and working hard.
"That has been her trademark all the way through high school and into university. When she was getting ready for junior worlds, she was here in the mornings to do conditioning, then she came back to do skill development, and then she came back to do live wrestling.
"She's going to be the real deal."
Slinn is well on her way. The 19-year-old, who started wrestling at Douglas Park School before moving on to Balfour Collegiate, is a former Canadian junior champion and outstanding female wrestler at the national junior meet.
Last season, she won a gold medal at an international junior competition in Romania, a bronze at a junior meet in Germany and -- competing as a freshman in an unfamiliar weight division of 55 kilograms -- a bronze at the Canada West and CIS championships.
So what makes Slinn successful?
"It's simple -- really simple," McGee replied. "At this (CIS) level and at the national level, talent is as cheap as table salt. It's all about work. That's what makes the difference. That's what makes all the difference for her."
"Nothing comes easy in life," noted Slinn, who's enrolled in arts with an eye on a possible career in indigenous studies. "My parents (Rita and Harlan) taught me if you work hard in life, everything will pay off in the end.
"If you put hard work in, accomplishing many goals will come out of it."
So Slinn worked hard in gymnastics -- she recalled getting a trophy one year for being her club's most improved athlete -- and in soccer. It's no surprise she continued that habit in wrestling.
When she was in her mid-teens, McGee and his brother, Dan, put Slinn on a high-performance training regimen to help her prepare for an international cadet competition. That also helped prepare her for life in the CIS.
"Practices got a lot more intense when I got here," Slinn said. "The competition got harder. The girls were a lot older than me.
"I was upset when I lost to them, but I took those losses and learned from them. When I made a mistake and lost to an older person, that helped me gain more knowledge about wrestling."
Earlier this season, Slinn and Cougars teammate Lisa McKibben went to Colorado Springs, Colo., for a training session with the Canadian and American senior teams -- and Slinn deliberately made things difficult for herself.
"I picked the hardest competition," she said proudly. "I want people to push me. That's when you learn."
On Saturday, Slinn, McKibben and Andrea Nillson represented the U of R in the U.S.-based Women's College Wrestling Association's championships in Marshall, Mo.
After a loss to Simon Fraser's Victoria Anthony -- a member of the U.S. national team -- Slinn rebounded to win the bronze medal in her usual weight class of 48kg. McKibben finished fifth at 67kg and Nillson didn't place at 72kg. Slinn and McKibben were named All-Americans based on their top-six finishes.
In the short term, Slinn wants to do well at the Canada West and CIS championships before making the Canadian junior team again. In the long term, she hopes to make the national senior team and be in London, England for the 2012 Summer Olympics.
"I'm toe to toe with senior athletes right now," Slinn said when asked if that's a realistic goal. "It's not like I'm losing badly to them. Another two years of hard work and fixing up my mistakes and I'll be there."
McGee gave Slinn this week off so she can rest. Yet there she was Monday, getting in a run at the U of R's Centre for Kinesiology, Health and Sport.
"I need to be active," she said with a shrug. "A run isn't going to kill me."