Jillian Alice Gallays (born October 20, 1986) is Canadian freestyle wrestler. She won the bronze medal at the 53kg event at the

2014 World Wrestling Championships The 2014 UWW World Wrestling Championships were the 10th edition of World Wrestling Championships of combined events and were held from September 8 to 14 in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. Medal table Team ranking Medal summary Men's freestyle Men's ...

, and is a 2016 Olympian.

Early life and education

Gallays was born in

St. Brieux St. Brieux () is a town in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Saskatchewan. It is located near Saskatchewan Highway 368, Highway 368 and Saskatchewan Highway 779, Highway 779. St. Brieux is located north of the villa ...

Saskatchewan Saskatchewan ( ; ) is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Western Canada, western Canada, bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and on t ...

. She was diagnosed as having

Dyslexia Dyslexia, also known until the 1960s as word blindness, is a disorder characterized by reading below the expected level for one's age. Different people are affected to different degrees. Problems may include difficulties in spelling words, r ...

at a young age. She was raised by a single mother. She attended the

University of Saskatchewan A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, t ...

where she obtained a degree in Kinesiology and competed on the

Saskatchewan Huskies The University of Saskatchewan began in 1907 and has operated teams that compete with others since 1911. The term Huskie Athletics is defined as those student athletes from the University of Saskatchewan that compete in elite interuniversity ...

wrestling team, on which she was the captain. She was a two-time

CIS Cis or cis- may refer to: Places * Cis, Trentino, in Italy * In Poland: ** Cis, Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship, south-central ** Cis, Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, north Math, science and biology * cis (mathematics) (cis(''θ'')), a trigonome ...

National Champion at U of S.

Career

She is a six-time Canadian National Champion. In 2014, competed at the

in the 53-Kilogram division, winning her first round match against Nadzeya Shushko of Belarus by technical fall, her round of 16 match against Lee Shin-hye of South Korea by fall, and her quarterfinal match against

Yuliya Blahinya Yuliya Olehivna Khavaldzhy-Blahinya ( uk, Юлія Олегівна Хавалджи-Благиня, also transliterated Yuliia or Iulia, born February 21, 1990, in Lviv) is a Ukrainian female wrestler. She is the 2008 World bronze medalist and 2 ...

of Ukraine before losing her semifinal match to eventual winner,

Saori Yoshida is a Japanese former freestyle wrestler. Starting in 1998 she won almost every major competition, including three Olympic Games, four Asian Games, and 13 world championships, and became the most decorated athlete in freestyle wrestling history. ...

of Japan. Qualifying for the repechage, she won her bronze medal match by defeating Natalia Malysheva of Russia. In July 2016, she was officially named to Canada's 2016 Olympic team. She lost her first round match to Jong Myong-suk of North Korea. She placed 19th in the women's featherweight freestyle event at the

2016 Summer Olympics The 2016 Summer Olympics ( pt, Jogos Olímpicos de Verão de 2016), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad ( pt, Jogos da XXXI Olimpíada) and also known as Rio 2016, was an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 20 ...

Personal life

Gallays currently resides in St. Catharines,

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

, having moved there from Saskatoon in 2014. Her nickname is "Jilla Killa".

References

External links

* 1986 births Sportspeople from Saskatchewan Sportspeople from St. Catharines Canadian female sport wrestlers World Wrestling Championships medalists Wrestlers at the 2016 Summer Olympics Olympic wrestlers for Canada Wrestlers at the 2014 Commonwealth Games Commonwealth Games medallists in wrestling Commonwealth Games bronze medallists for Canada Living people 21st-century Canadian sportswomen Medallists at the 2014 Commonwealth Games Sportspeople with dyslexia {{Canada-wrestling-bio-stub