'You belong there,' former Olympic wrestler tells Linda Morais

As Linda Morais gets ready to make her Olympic debut on Monday, a fellow Essex County athlete wrestler and former Olympian David Tremblay knows what it's like to be in her position.

With the countdown on, Tremblay says he hopes Morais is in "a very positive mind frame," looking forward to the competition, and is not too nervous.

"I hope she's just doing her regular routine that she's been doing throughout the years leading up to the games, and she's ready to go out and wrestle," Tremblay said on Windsor Morning.

LISTEN| David Tremblayoffers advice toLinda Morais:

Windsor Morning9:33Former Olympian offers advice to Tecumseh athlete who will wrestle in Paris Monday

David Tremblay is a former Olympic wrestler.

Morais, a 30-year-old Tecumseh, Ont., wrestler, qualified for the Olympics in May after capturing a bronze medal in Turkey. She beat a Romanian grappler in the women's 68-kilogram weight class.

Following her win she told CBC Radio's Windsor Morning she was looking forward to what lies ahead.

"It just feels incredible," she said. "This is a dream I've had for as long as I can remember."

According to Morais, the path she took while at the qualifying event was the "hardest way" to achieve her dream of finally making it to an Olympics.

"It was really the last spot. There's only 16 athletes in my weight class that go to the Olympics, and there's a whole bunch of countries fighting for those 16 spots."

Tune out distractions

Tremblay won the gold medal at the Pan American Qualification tournament and thus qualified to compete at the 2012 Summer Olympics.

In these final days leading up to the competition in Paris, Tremblay said Morais should "be on the mats, wrestling, doing technique, doing some matches" and work on strategic things to sharpen up her wrestling skills.

WATCH | Morais won a world championship five years ago:

Tecumseh, Ont. wrestler qualifies for 1st Olympics says it could be her last hurrah

4 months ago

Duration 1:08

Tecumsehs Linda Morais says shes ready to grind leading up to her first Olympics in Paris, France this summer. She recently qualified for the Olympics after capturing a bronze medal in Turkey by beating a Romanian grappler in the womens 68 kilograms weight class.

Meanwhile, Morais will also need to tune out distractions at this time.

"Definitely turning off your phone in the social media side of things," Tremblay said.

"For myself, I had somebody that took care of all that. I know that Lin is not very big on social media already, so that's probably a little bit less of a distraction. Probably a little bit less on the interviews and things of that sense.

"Hopefully she's just enjoying the moment as well. I think that they're staying in the athletes' village as well, so that can always be a distraction too There's a lot of moving parts, so hopefully they're finding a space that's nice and quiet in the games to be able to relax," Tremblay added.

What happens next

Tremblay said Morais will be competing a bit later in the day on Monday, "which works out really well for us here in Windsor," as more people would be able to watch her.

Her competition is scheduled to start at9 a.m. ET.

"If she wins that, then she'll continue on up to the semifinals later that night. If she wins the semifinals, then she competes the following day in the finals, and if she ever does lose to an opponent, then you're going to go into hoping that that opponent makes the finals and then she'll get pulled back in," Tremblay said.

'You belong there'

Tremblay says he's been giving Morais personal advice and tips even before she departed for the Olympics.

"Leading into the games, the way that she qualified, I think worked out really well for her," he said.

"She proved herself again and again. She's a world medalist, a world gold medalist. So, my advice talking to her leading up to the games was really you belong there. This is made for you to kind of showcase your skills," he said.

Tremblay's family has a close connection to Morais, with his father coaching her from Grade 9 to Grade 12.

Morias was also teammates with Tremblay's brother and sister as well. Both Morais and Tremblay also lived in Montreal during the same period of time.

Tremblay says his mother is "very close" with Morais's mother, and both of his parents have travelled to Paris to watch her compete at the Olympics.

"My dad, with all of his past athletes, he wants to follow their careers afterwards, so making it to the Olympics, it was a no-brainer for my dad to really just say that he's part of the group and he's looking forward to it," he said.

"Hopefully they enjoy watching Linda on the world's biggest stage they're there to cheer here on, and when she comes back with a medal, my dad's gonna for sure wear it around his head and his neck as well."