Canadian Catherine Beauchemin-Pinard leads the pack U63kg

To keep the number one slot U63kg from the weight below not only in Pan America but in Canada specifically, Catherine Beauchemin-Pinard has worked incredibly hard. Following the retirement and the temporary absence of Tina and Clarisse respectively, pole position has been up for grabs and it was the Canadian who chose to work hard enough to earn it.

Beauchemin-Pinard has an Olympic medal, 2 world medals and 4 grand slam golds and many other accolades; she deserves everything she wins. However, she also takes losses and doesn’t dominate the category as some have in the past. This means it’s not necessarily a place that will assure her Olympic glory in the months to come.

Laura Fazliu (KOS) has been weaving her way through the group, taking scalp after scalp, making a name for herself against the backdrop of expectation set by her teammates, a list of incredible women whom have shown her what’s possible. She’s 23, always with her eyes forward, never wavering from the tasks at hand but until the 2023 Masters she had no major titles despite collecting some notable smaller results. She won gold at the Masters though and entry into the inner circle of top athletes at -63 kg. Now her name can be mentioned when predicting Olympic medals for the summer ahead. Fazliu, Beauchemin-Pinard’s vice-front-runner, is going to be quite a force in Paris but neither of them is guaranteed anything. The Japanese contingent is strong, Szymanska (POL) and Leski (SLO) too. U63kg is a very open field.