Walk-on Wright claims national silver

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This article was published 16/03/2024 (753 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Graham Wright hit a peak beyond his wildest dreams two years ago.

This season, he turned that peak into a formality. The Brandonite not only qualified to compete with the best weight throwers in the country, he was one spot away from being the best.

Wright captured a silver medal at the U Sports track and field championships for the host Manitoba Bisons last weekend.

“It’s unbelievable really, from where I started. It feels really, really good,” said Wright, who walked on to the Bisons track and field team in 2019.

“When I found out we were hosting, I was like, ‘All right, let’s go. Let’s get to work.’ The whole summer was put towards last weekend. Everything I did … went into nationals at home.”

Wright’s backstory is remarkable and well-documented. He played hockey and football for the Vincent Massey Vikings in high school, sitting at six-foot-five and around 280 pounds.

He moved into residence at the U of M in 2017 and like many athletes who suddenly aren’t exercising for multiple hours a day, gained weight. In Wright’s case, it was around 40 pounds.

He failed a course and received three Ds in his first semester and thought about dropping out multiple times during the next few years.

His sister’s boyfriend brought up the idea of throwing for the Bisons, knowing he might just be a natural. Wright emailed head coach Claude Berube and he gave him a shot — literally — to try the shot put for the first time.

It may have been the best decision of his life. Being part of the team gave him much-needed structure and he went from failing classes to becoming an academic all-Canadian.

Wright gravitated to the weight throw, the indoor track and field equivalent to the hammer throw, with a 35-pound weight on a shorter wire than the 16-pound hammer since the outfield is smaller.

He threw around 13 metres in his first season and didn’t get many opportunities in 2020-21 due to COVID-19.

The following season, he threw 15.94 metres to finish fourth in the Canada West championship, qualifying for nationals as the ninth-ranked thrower in the country.

Last year, Wright finished fourth at nationals.

It turns out he wasn’t even close to being done there.

He set a personal best of 19.35 metres this season, which in his opinion is largely a product of his work in the weight room.

He’s now hang cleaning 127 kilograms, has a snatch personal best of 90 kg and boosted his front squat from 100 to 165 kilograms.

“When I go to the gym now, I want to be there, it’s fun to be there, I don’t feel like I’m forcing myself,” Wright said.

“If you find something you want to do and you like it, it won’t feel like work. I used to hate going to the gym but now it’s fun.”

Wright threw 18.02 metres to win Canada West gold three weeks ago, then with his second attempt at nationals, launched it 18.65 metres, good for a silver medal.

For Wright, the only thing cooler than standing on the podium was having teammate Josh Suelzle up there with him wearing bronze. Suelzle walked on the same year Wright did, and now they’re roommates and training partners.

“When you have someone by your side like that for five years and to succeed with them, it makes it so much sweeter,” Wright said.

“You know you’re putting the work in and you see how much they’re putting the work in. You want all that to (translate) into success and it absolutely did.”

While focusing on personal goals, Wright has kept his teammates at the forefront as well. He recalls his days in Grade 10 on the Massey hockey team being shy and nervous around older players. By Grade 12, he felt comfortable as a leader although he wasn’t wearing a letter.

He said the same thing happened during the past five years with the Bisons. Now, it’s his priority to learn every rookie’s name and make sure they feel comfortable at practice.

Wright wants to see them thrive because not only is he gunning for a gold medal in his fifth and final year of eligibility — to go with his education degree, majoring in physical education and minoring in home economics — he wants to snatch the team championship away from the Guelph Gryphons, who topped the second-place Bisons by 7.5 points with 89.

“I don’t want to leave anything on the table. I don’t want to feel like I left anything to doubt. If it results in a national championship, amazing. If it doesn’t, I’ll know I gave it everything I had,” Wright said. “I can’t express how much fun I had on the team this year.

“I know the boys and girls on this team next year, we’re going to push as hard as ever. We got some good, good rookies coming up and some good second years that are going to be really, really good next year. I’m super excited to push for a national title.”

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