2016 Olympian Dorothy Yeats visited the Akwesasne Boys & Girls Club Monday, March 5th, 2018 to share her Olympic journey, teach technique, and play games with our youth. Yeats spoke to approximately 60 Akwesasne youth aged 6-18. With each group, Yeats shared the story of her Olympic journey and stressed the importance of goal-setting, work ethic, and having fun. Yeats then ran youth through a short workout that included basic gymnastics and wrestling games before teaching fundamental wrestling techniques to our youth.

Competing in the 69 KG (152 lbs.) category, Yeats is a four-time Canadian National Champion, 2013 World Champion, 2015 Pan-American Games Champion, and has been ranked as high as 5th in the world by United World Wrestling. In her 2016 Olympic debut, the Montreal-based grappler fell in the bronze-medal bout to Sweden's Jenny Fransson. Yeats intends to continue her Olympic journey in hopes of qualifying for, and medaling at, the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.

Yeats came to speak to our youth as part of the Akwesasne Boys & Girls Club's T.R.A.I.L. program. The T.R.A.I.L. program is a diabetes-prevention program run yearly by the club to promote healthy lifestyles, physical activity, and conscious nutrition choices in our youth. The grant affords for our youth the opportunity to go on field trips, receive guest speakers, and participate in a yearly community-service project.

The staff at the Akwesasne Boys & Girls Club extends our gratitude to Dorothy Yeats for providing our youth with this unique experience and wishes her well in her future endeavors.