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Hall of Famers

Hall of Famer

Carol Huynh

Inducted in 2017

Member Details

Date of Birth: November 16, 1980
Place of Birth: Hazelton, British Columbia
Sport: Wrestling
Member Category: Athlete

Career Highlights

2008

Gold medal in the women’s 48 kg division at the Olympic Games in Beijing

2012

Won Bronze at the Olympic Games in London

Hall of Famer Carol Huynh
Sport

Story

The middle child of five siblings, Carol Huynh was born in Hazelton, British Columbia and was the first Canadian-born child after her family emigrated as refugees from Vietnam. She was introduced to wrestling by her high school coach and progressed in the sport, entering the University scene, first with Simon Fraser University. She won two World Championship medals, Bronze in 2000 and Silver in 2001, and was the World University Games Champion in 2005. Carol then moved to Alberta and started wrestling for the University of Calgary Dinos Wrestling Club in 2007.

Carol was a 2-time Junior National Champion (1999 and 2000), an 11-time Senior National Champion (2000-02, 2004-2008, and 2010-12), a two-time Pan American Games champion in 2007 and 2011, the 2010 Commonwealth Games champion, and a four-time world wrestling championship medallist (Silver in 2001, Bronze in 2000, 2005, and 2010). At the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, she was not favoured to win, but made history by becoming the first Canadian woman to win Olympic Gold in the women’s 48 kg division. It was Canada’s first-ever Olympic Gold medal in women’s wrestling and it was not long before she was on the podium once again when she won a Bronze medal at the 2012 Olympic Games in London.

Carol retired from competitive wrestling after the 2012 Olympic Games, but has since given back to her sport and her community in multiple ways in Canada and around the world. When wrestling was taken out of the Olympic programme after the 2012 Olympic Games, Carol was chosen by fellow world-class wrestlers to advocate on their behalf at the 125th International Olympic Committee Session in Buenos Aires in 2013 to have wrestling readmitted which she did successfully. She is an assistant coach at the Dinos Wrestling Club at the University of Calgary and Next Generation coach at the Canadian Sport Institute in Calgary.

In early 2015, she was appointed as a United World Wrestling Super 8 Ambassador for the global campaign focusing on the development of women in wrestling and she is currently the President of the United World Wrestling Athletes Commission. Carol has exhibited passion, class, and extraordinary commitment to sport and her community throughout her career as an athlete, coach, and sports advocate.