Two Barrie teens have fought their way to the top of their sport.
Taylor Malynk and Chase Drossos will be heading to Italy as part of Team Canada later this month to compete in the World Association of Kickboxing Organizations (WAKO) K-1 World Championships in Italy.
The recent Innisdale Secondary School grads have been training hard over the last 18 months and say they are excited to finally be able to get back in the ring.
Trained in both Muay Thai fighters and K-1 kickboxing, Malynk is set to compete in the 18-plus age category and the 125-pound weight class. She told BarrieToday she got into the sport when she was 14 after trying out jiu-jitsu.
“I didn’t really like the rolling on the ground with the sweaty men, so I tried to go more striking-wise. As soon as I tried Muay Thai, I really enjoyed it and got good at it fast,” she said.
In her first year, she won two gold medals in both the provincial and national championships with Muay Thai Ontario.
“I fight Muay Thai and K-1 is kind of similar. Muay Thai is elbows and knees," Malynk said. "You use all eight limbs and K-1 is just the hands and the kicking. It’s a bit different, but I still enjoy it.”
With the COVID-19 pandemic, there’s been no opportunity for them to fight, she said, so instead they’ve focused on their training.
“Now to have such a big event after not getting to fight for so long, we’ve both got the nerves, but we are both super excited about it,” Malynk said. “I’m looking forward to getting back in the ring and feeling the adrenaline rush that comes with competing.
"It’s so different to try and mentally prepare and then actually being there," she added. "I am excited to be in that environment and have my teammates around — and just get to do what I love.”
A provincial champion, Canadian national champion, two-time PanAm Games silver medallist and North American silver medallist, Drossos is slated to compete in the 18-plus category and 105-pound weight class during the 10-day tournament.
Drossos discovered the sport when she was only after returning to Canada from Costa Rica, where she’d spent the previous few years living with her family. While there, she surfed to stay active, something she wasn’t going to be able to continue to do here, so she went on the hunt for another sport to keep her fit.
“We grew up watching UFC and thought I would love to just try it,” she said. “I basically pulled my dad with me because I needed someone to train with to start and I was too scared to go by myself. I started just for fun and to stay in shape, but six months later I had my first fight and I fell in love with it.”
Drossos admits she loves the adrenaline rush she feels anytime she enters the ring — along with the sense of confidence she feels.
“The confidence I have now just knowing I can handle myself if I ever needed to and feeling strength (as) a woman," she said.
Drossos trains six days a week and is also excited to finally be able to bring all that hard work back into the ring.
“It’s been a year and a half… and I’ve been working really hard and training all this time, so I am super excited to go in there and show what I’ve got,” she said. “I am only five feet (tall) and get a lot of people look at me and say I don’t look like a fighter.
"At the beginning, I had a lot of challenges of people telling me I was too short and too light… and wouldn’t beat them. I had a lot of doubts… but I just pushed through that. It pushed me to be better and made me want to prove them wrong.”
The competition will bring fighters from all over the world, which Malnyk says will be an entirely new experience for her.
“I have kind of just stayed (in Canada), so now going international is going to be a whole new experience for me,” she said, adding getting to attend with her former classmate — and Canadian teammate — will be a one-of-a-kind experience.
“She is in a different weight category than me, but we will be going together. I feel like I have an advantage with that. I got to know her in high school and we are close friends now, so we’re going to be able to experience this together… and hopefully (we will) bring back two gold medals to Barrie.”
