Huskie alumna, Canadian Senior National Champion and former rodeo athlete Katie Dutchak's path to wrestling success was, in her words, a very "unorthodox journey".

It wasn't until 14 years old that Dutchak first saw the inside of a wrestling room, after her brother suggested she use the sport to support her hockey season.

"I was playing hockey at the time, like the good Saskatchewan girl I was. When I got to high school, my brother said if I wanted to get in shape for the hockey season, I should join wrestling. That it would be a really good crossover," Dutchak said. "My math teacher also happened to be the wrestling coach. He put the pressure on too, which was great. I'm glad that he did. That's what led me to get in the room."
 
It wasn't long before she was hooked.
 
"There was just something about it. It didn't matter the position you played. I could be small and still really good at it. I could be fast, and that could be my strength. Or, I could be strong and that could be my strength."
 
Dutchak grew up in a family of five, with four siblings, including three brothers and one sister.
 
"I was smack dab between two of my brothers. I grew up in a roughhousing type of house. When I got into wrestling, being able to keep up with the guys gave me this innate confidence. Immediately I just felt so powerful and strong."
 
Dutchak and her late brother Josh. (Photo: Submitted)

Dutchak continued wrestling throughout high school, but by the time post-secondary arrived, was focused on another love – rodeo.
 
"I had gotten a rodeo scholarship to Missouri State University. I was done wrestling in my mind. I had given my boots away and was headed off to the States."
 
Legendary Huskie Wrestling coach, the late Todd Hinds, had seen her talent on the mat and had something else in mind.
 
"He sat me down and convinced me to defer my scholarship for one year. To just try the Huskies' room."
 
Coach Hinds was very supportive of Dutchak being a dual-sport athlete and giving time to both wrestling and rodeo.
 
She continued with both over the course of her time at University of Saskatchewan, planning and hosting what became the largest collegiate sanctioned rodeo in Canada.
 
"It's actually still going today. I'm super proud of that."
 
Balancing it all wasn't easy, Dutchak said, and as she neared the end of her Bachelor of Commerce (BComm) and fourth year of eligibility with the Huskies, her relationship with competition began to deteriorate.
 
"It was splitting my attention. I was getting my business degree, working part-time, trying to wrestle and trying to rodeo. I was doing everything, but I wasn't really doing anything well, and I had a lot of injuries because of it," she said. "Wrestling is just so demanding, and if you're not on top of your strength and conditioning, you're very susceptible to injury. I learned that the hard way."
 
Dutchak at a Huskie Wrestling match. (Photo: Huskie Athletics/Electric Umbrella)

Once Dutchak graduated and entered the workforce, she made the decision to step away from wrestling.
 
"I was working full-time and training full-time, and I wasn't enjoying it anymore. I was hoping to get injured. To me that was a very large stop sign."
 
After stepping away for two years she gained the perspective she needed, Dutchak said, and the time to heal her relationship with the sport she had once loved so much.
 
"It gave me a lot of perspective on what it was about wrestling that I loved. What it was about competing that I loved. What my relationship should have been or needed to be… and then as I healed that relationship, I missed it. So much. I was just craving it. The training. The sprints at the end of practice. I craved what wrestling pushed me to. What it required from me. So, I made the decision to come back."
 
In 2019, with clarity and one year of Huskies eligibility left, Dutchak decided to go back to school to pursue a Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN).
 
Halfway through, the COVID-19 pandemic hit.
 
"That was really hard. You finally feel like you're ready and you're in the place you need to be mentally and physically… and the world shut down. At the same time, I'm was working in the hospital and seeing a lot bigger realities than 'oh I don't get to compete'. As disappointed as I was, there were just so many other things happening."
 
That disruption meant Dutchak lost nearly two years of her training cycle, falling behind her competitors in international experience, something vital to developing and competing at the Olympic level.
 
"Ultimately, my goal was to make an Olympic team. To get yourself to a level where you can achieve something like that, you need exposure. Every country has its own style. Europeans have a little bit of a different style. And the level of wrestling is quite high in Europe."
 
Huskie Wrestling assistant coach Shane Bradley imparted his advice on Dutchak, telling her to find any international opportunity she could get her hands on to gain that experience.
 
Little did she know that advice would lead her to train with Swedish Olympic bronze medalist Sofia Mattsson.

"She had posted on her Instagram story about training in Sweden. I took a screenshot and I sent it to Shane. He told me to message her. I said you want me to DM three-time Olympian Sofia Mattsson? And say, what?" Dutchak said, laughing. "Hi, I'm this nobody from Canada, I'd love to come to your camp. And he said, yes. Write that to her."
 
Mattsson responded, inviting Dutchak to Sweden.
 
"I'm fangirling and she's like, we'd love to have you. She's an Olympic bronze medalist… I was freaking out."
 
Over the next five years, Dutchak traveled back and forth, training and forming a strong relationship with Mattsson and her training partners.
 
She also met her now husband who will be moving to Canada later this year, something she says would have never happened had she not stepped away from wrestling and had that desperation to gain the international experience needed to compete at the level she was striving for.
 
Dutchak and her husband Nic. (Photo: Submitted)

"It was just such a game changer. The elevation of my wrestling was immediate, and very steep.
 
This past June, all of Dutchak's training, exposure and travel paid off when she competed at the highest national level, taking home a gold medal at the Canadian Wrestling Championships in Montreal.
 
"That was for sure the most locked in I've ever been. It didn't matter which body was in front of me, I was winning that match." Dutchak said. "My adrenaline was high, but I was just trying to stay focused. You hear your name. You do your walkout.. and then it's just you and your opponent. It's a very vulnerable experience."
 
When she knew she won, she said the feeling was hard to describe.
 
"I only knew the feeling at that level of disappointment. When you miss by one point or make a mistake early in the match. When you work all match to come back from that and it's not enough. That's all I'd ever known. For the first time, it was like, no… I did it. I did it."
 
The first thing that came to mind, Dutchak said, was her village.
 
In particular, two people who she said she couldn't have done it without - her late brother Josh who passed from cancer in September 2022 and her late training partner, fellow Huskie Wrestling alumna Natasha Fox, who was killed in a tragic accident in May 2023.
 
Dutchak and Huskie Wrestling alumna, the late Natasha Fox. (Photo: Submitted)

"Natasha passed away 6 months before Olympic Trials. She was helping me prep for it. And Josh was the one that got me into wrestling. He was the one that convinced me to do it." Dutchak said, with tears in her eyes.
 
She said she doesn't know what she would have done during that time had she not had wrestling.
 
"Coming back into the room for the first time after Natasha passed away... I watched the accident. We were on the way to practice together. I saw it happen. To be back in that room without the person that was my number one supporter... I'm just so grateful to wrestling. It was there for me. To help me through that. To process everything."

When she stood on that podium receiving her gold medal this past May, on her brother's birthday, Dutchak said there was overwhelming gratitude for everyone who had helped bring her to that point.
 
"We did it. For Josh and Natasha. There was such a village of people that believed in me. That believed in us as a team and that were there behind the scenes."
 
With a national championship and gold medal under her belt, Dutchak said though she would love to compete at Olympic trials for LA 2028, she's taking things one day at a time and staying focused on what's in front of her.
 
"I want so badly to make another Olympic push. It's right around the corner, but it's also two years away. The funding is very limited, and it's generally on the athletes to find sponsorship and additional funding, so we'll see." Dutchak said.
 
Right now, her focus is on preparing for World Championships in Kazakhstan at the end of October.
 
Dutchak at the Canadian Wrestling Championships in May 2026. (Photo: Submitted)
 
"This is my first World Championship. I've been working towards this for five years. This was a big goal of mine… to make a world team."

At 34 years old, Dutchak's journey to Senior National Champion and World Championships hasn't been an easy one.

Filled with pivots, challenges, losses and triumphs, it's a story of resilience, perseverance, drive and an unwavering belief in self.
 
As for what wrestling provides her as a woman, Dutchak said it's been a journey and tool of empowerment.
 
"That to me is the most underutilized tool for women. To see yourself and your body as, 'look at what I can do'. Look at what my body can give me. Look at how strong I am. Look at how fast I am. What I'm capable of. It's not a sexual tool. It's not a marketing tool. It's capability. I surprise myself with what I can endure. I surprise myself with what I can achieve. And I can surprise others."