Former Olympic wrestler Jillian Gallays reflects on academic and athletic journeys

As an acclaimed wrestler, Olympian, and fitness coach, University of Saskatchewan (USask) graduate Jillian Gallays (BSKI’12) is accustomed to setting goals and taking the necessary steps to try to achieve them.

During her involvement in the USask Huskies program from 2005-2010, Gallays earned four Canada West medals and three U SPORTS medals and was also named the Huskie Athletics Female Athlete of the Year in 2009. 

In addition to her career as a USask Huskie student-athlete, Gallays experienced athletic success at the national and international levels, becoming a Wrestling Canada senior champion in 2010, a Commonwealth Games bronze medalist in 2014, and a World Championship bronze medalist in 2014. In 2016, she was named to the Canadian Olympic Team and competed at the 2016 Olympic Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. 

While Gallays is now known as one of the most accomplished female wrestlers in USask Huskies history, in a recent interview with the Green&White she talked about some of the challenges that she dealt with throughout her academic and athletic journeys.

“I have a learning disability; I’m dyslexic and I have ADHD. So, school’s always been super tough,” said Gallays, who earned her Bachelor of Science in Kinesiology degree (with a minor in math) at USask’s College of Kinesiology in 2012.

“I never thought I would graduate high school, let alone go to university. But my mom really encouraged me to go to university.”

Studying kinesiology at USask turned out to be the right fit for Gallays, who always felt drawn to movement as a student growing up in Saskatoon. Prior to coming to USask, she found a supportive environment within the Jr. Huskies Wrestling Club as a young wrestler.

“It’s such a great community and they just want to help you along. They want everyone just to succeed the best they can, and they really encourage everyone to go to university and try. And so that’s kind of how I ended up with going to school for kinesiology,” she said.

After graduating from Aden Bowman Collegiate, it felt “very natural and organic” for Gallays to enroll at USask. That decision enabled her to stay close to the support systems that were available to her in Saskatoon, including her mother, whom Gallays described as “a huge help” throughout university. Gallays said her mother, USask alumna Karen Gartner (BSc’05), was committed to helping to her succeed at USask.

“She was actually taking her computer science degree, and part of her project was to help (Access and Equity) Services with their programming so that I had more services available to me,” said Gallays. “She did so much to make sure that the disability services had supports that could help me flourish in university.”

With determination and support in place, Gallays successfully juggled her athletics career and her academic pursuits. While she found her USask classes to be challenging, she also found the support she received at the university and from the professors in her college to be “very uplifting.” She took classes at her own pace, starting with two each semester and increasing to a maximum of four.

“It took me quite a long time to graduate from school—almost eight years to graduate,” she said.

While the coursework was a challenge, Gallays also had to overcome numerous injuries during her time as a student-athlete. She still feels the impact of some of those injuries today.

“I had a lot of injuries. I had four knee surgeries. I had two dislocated elbows. I have multiple discs in my back that will be what they are for the rest of my life,” she said.

“So, I had a lot of injuries. I spent a lot of time in Huskie Health as well. Setbacks were such a part of my sport career that you just have to take a different approach. And that’s kind of where that loneliness slowly kicked in, because as much as everyone else is training, I’m doing rehab. Then it’s like you can get down a really depressing rabbit hole pretty quickly—especially when it’s repeatedly happening. Almost every year I had a major injury.”

Despite her injuries, Gallays tried to find the silver lining in every situation. Through those obstacles she learned valuable lessons about resilience and determination.

“I always seemed to find some positive spin in those moments of like, ‘Well, I can’t do this event, but I get the opportunity to work on this skill’—and I think that that’s what’s made me such a more well-rounded human now. It’s like, ‘Just because this one path of what everyone else is doing isn’t available to me, it doesn’t mean that I am behind. I just have to take a different road.’ ”

Competing in the Olympic Games was always the ultimate dream for Gallays. For wrestlers like her, the Olympics represent the highest level of achievement in their sport, since freestyle wrestling doesn’t have a professional league, like the NFL or NHL, in which athletes compete throughout the year. However, in January 2015, with her heart set on the Olympics, Gallays suffered a serious injury—a second-degree tear in her right LCL—that required surgery. In August of that same year, she endured another surgery on her left meniscus and a torn MCL, which occurred at a training camp when another group fell on her during the warmup.

But all was not lost. Unable to compete at the national trials in December 2015, she was granted a wrestle-off in February 2016. She won that wrestle-off to earn a trip to the Pan American Olympic qualifier, where she went undefeated to secure a spot in Rio to keep her Olympic dream alive.

“I’m excited and so proud that I get to represent Canada this summer,” Gallays said in a Green&White interview in the spring of 2016. “It’s overwhelming; it gives me goosebumps thinking about it. It’s just been a dream for so long that it doesn’t even seem like reality.”

Gallays realized her Olympic dream when she travelled to the 2016 Summer Games in Brazil, where she ultimately placed 19th in the women’s 53-kilogram freestyle event. She retired from wrestling shortly after the Olympics.

“Watching the Olympics now brings back both good and challenging memories because my own Olympic journey had many ups and downs,” she said. “That said, I am always cheering for Canadian athletes and hoping they achieve the outcomes they have dreamed of. What I enjoy most now is hearing the athletes’ stories rather than focusing only on performance results.”

For Gallays, competing in the Olympics felt very different from taking part in the other major competitions she had attended, such as the FISU World University Games, the Commonwealth Games, and the World Championships.

“There is a different kind of pressure that comes from outside expectations, from people who may not normally follow your sport but suddenly care deeply during the Olympics,” said Gallays.

“At the same time, it is incredibly exciting to be part of something bigger than just your team. You are representing your country, which creates a strong sense of pride. Competing at the Olympics was always a dream of mine. At the same time, the experience also makes you reflect on what the moment means and why the Olympics carry such weight compared with other world-level events.”

Gallays particularly enjoyed attending the opening ceremonies at the Olympics. She felt the anticipation that was in the air, knowing that every athlete had spent years preparing for that very moment.

“Everyone is waiting for game day to arrive. The atmosphere is full of hope, excitement, and eagerness, and it feels like the entire world has come together in one place,” Gallays said.

While she was “incredibly proud” to compete at the Olympics and to represent Canada on the world stage, her experience in Brazil was not necessarily the highlight of her wrestling career, she said. Rather, the highlight for Gallays was her time as a Huskie student-athlete.

“Earlier in my career, especially when I was a Huskie, I felt a much stronger sense of connection to my teammates and the joy of the sport itself,” she said.

“As you move further along in high-performance sport, the environment can become more complex. There can be more politics, pressure, and isolation, and injuries start to accumulate. By the time I reached the Olympics, the experience felt very all-encompassing and, at times, difficult. I was proud to represent Canada, but it was also a period where I knew I was ready for something different and a new chapter beyond sport. Looking back now, I still feel grateful for everything wrestling gave me and for the opportunity to compete at that level, even if the journey was not always what I expected.”

Gallays is particularly grateful for the opportunities she had to travel and to experience other cultures. She has visited more than 40 countries around the world.

“I'm just so thankful to have that opportunity to have that international growth of knowledge that I would never have had otherwise,” she said. “If I didn’t reach that international level (in sport), I wouldn’t have had the chance to see the world through my own eyes.”

After retiring from wrestling, Gallays took her experience and expertise as a high-performance athlete to Craven SPORTS Services in Saskatoon, where she worked for eight years. Gallays had a longtime connection with physiotherapst and USask alumnus Bruce Craven (BSPE’88, BSPT’88, MSc’91), who helped train Gallays throughout her wrestling injuries.

Gallays describes Craven SPORTS Services as “a really incredible company,” and it wasn’t until her employment ended at Craven that she felt that she had officially retired from wresting.

“There was a little bit of denial of being done sport because I just transitioned all that Olympic energy into all these other athletes,” she said.

Today, Gallays works as a motivational speaker and a strength and conditioning coach. She shares her stories and experiences to help people overcome obstacles and reach new heights. She is also honest about life’s challenges.

“I'm kind of tired of hearing the same message from people, like, ‘If you work hard, you’ll get it.’ Sometimes you can work hard, and you won’t get there—because that happened to me a lot as well. And it’s just like that very tricky rollercoaster of if you really want it, you just have to continue pushing.”

In 2025, Gallays’ many accomplishments were honoured when she was inducted into the Saskatoon Sports Hall of Fame. When she reflects on what she has achieved, including the recent Hall of Fame induction, she also remembers the people who have supported her throughout her athletic journey. This includes paying tribute to key supporters who have passed away, including Gallays’ coach, Todd Hinds, a former Huskie wresting head coach; professional wrestler Michelle Fazzari, who competed with Gallays at the 2016 Olympic Summer Games; and Gallays’ close friend, USask alumna Natasha (Kramble) Fox (BSKI’12, BEd’13), who trained with Gallays as a fellow member of the Huskie women’s wrestling team.

“She was my everything. She was my person,” Gallays said of Fox, who trained with Gallays in St. Catharines, Ont., leading up to the Olympics. “She was just such an uplifting human that reached so many people.”

Gallays also met her husband, USask graduate Scott McCubbing (BSKI’12, MPT’15), when they were both USask student-athletes. They started dating after Gallays competed in the Olympics. Their relationship was a great fit from the start.

“It’s nice to have someone that’s in that somewhat similar realm of understanding. He was a pole vaulter,” said Gallays.

Today Gallays and McCubbing, a physical therapist, have a four-year-old son, Hudson. McCubbing continues to give back to his alma mater as a Huskies track and field coach in pole vault. Gallays, meanwhile, has taken on another challenge, recently completing a master’s degree program at Queen’s University. In 2024, she was announced as a recipient of the Game Plan Award for the Professional Graduate Degree and enrolled in the Master of Management Analytics program at the Smith School of Business.

Gallays will soon travel to Kingston, Ont., with her family to officially receive her master’s degree. It’s now a time of transition for Gallays, as she works on her resume and seeks jobs in the areas of project management and data science. But, as she has demonstrated many times throughout her life, she is up for the challenge.

“I think that looking forward to the unknown is kind of exciting,” she said.