Terris Smith has jabbed, bobbed and weaved one step closer to the 2024 Paris Summer Games. The Victoria boxer won the 60-kilogram women’s title at the Canadian Olympic trials held in Montreal.
The 30-year-old advanced to the Olympic qualifying tournament Feb. 29 to March 12 in Busto Arsizio, Italy, after a mandatory national team training camp next month in Montreal, and did it by also holding down a full-time job as an accountant.
“This is so exciting and it’s a dream come true. It all still feels surreal, said Smith, after arriving back on the Island on Monday.
“It’s taken a lot of dedication but it feels like all the hard work has paid off.”
Most of Smith’s opponents at nationals were much younger full-time boxers with no outside jobs.
“I have a lot of support at work,” said Smith.
And inside the ring with coach Jason Heit, well known locally in the fight community, and who has guided Smith since she began boxing eight years ago.
Heit fought for sa国际传媒 in the 1995 Pan Am Games and just missed the 1996 Atlanta Olympics by one spot before turning pro. Now he might just get to the Summer Games through Smith.
This has been a steady climb for Smith, the four-time sa国际传媒 champion who won bronze at the Canadian championships last year after losing a controversial 3-2 split decision in the semifinals. Smith was Canadian silver medallist at the 2019 national championships held on Bear Mountain when she was stopped in the gold-medal bout by 2015 Pan Am Games gold-medallist Caroline Veyre of Montreal. All that was spinning in Smith’s mind during the Olympic trials, especially after falling behind in the gold-medal bout.
“I knew I had to keep my head in it this year in the final after knowing I had lost the first round,” said Smith.
She won the last two rounds and had the gold medal put around her neck to achieve a life-long dream. But the journey is far from over.
“It’s one step at a time and this was just another one taken,” said Smith.
She knows it’s now or never at 30.
“If it’s not this Olympics, it won’t be the next one [2028],” she said, realistically.
A second and final Olympic qualifying tournament, following the one in Italy, will be held from May 23 to June 3 in Bangkok, Thailand.
Also in the Paris Olympic hunt through the Italy and Thailand qualifiers will be Canadian heavyweight champion Bryan Colwell of Victoria. The 33-year-old Islander almost got there through the 2023 Pan Am Games in Santiago, Chile, out of which the gold and silver medallists advanced directly to the Paris Olympics. Colwell was awarded the Pan Am Games bronze medal after a cut received in his quarter-final victory denied him his spot in the semifinals due to medical reasons.
“I’ve put in 15 years to get here. It’s been a long time coming. Obviously it’s not the way we wanted it to go down. But I still have two more opportunities to qualify [at the world Olympic qualifiers for Paris in Italy and Thailand],” said Colwell, when he was in Santiago.
Up to 50 Island or Island-based athletes usually qualify to compete in each Summer Olympics but Smith and Colwell would be the first Islanders to box in the Olympics since Victoria Sports Hall of Fame inductee Donnie Orr Jr. in 2000 at Sydney.
