It’s going to be quite a week for the Godinez family.
On Saturday, Loopy Godinez faces off against Mackenzie Dern in a battle of top-10 ranked strawweights, and then exactly six days later, her sister Ana Godinez represents Canada when she competes at 62kg in women’s freestyle wrestling.
While the siblings are no strangers to high-level competition, this particular situation is remarkably unique, especially given the infrequency of the Olympics only occurring once every four years. There’s a lot riding for both, but Loopy isn’t trying to overthink the situation. Still, she admits the intensity only gets magnified as the date for her fight and her sister’s wrestling matches draw nearer.
“No stress,” Loopy told MMA Fighting. “I think she’s really focusing on training, focusing on herself. Once I’m fighting and she’s competing, of course it’s nerve-racking and you feel nervous.
“You just try to focus on yourself, and once it’s time to get nervous, I’ll get nervous. But for now, I’m just really happy for her. She’s worked so hard.”
As unusual as this situation might be, Loopy and her sister Ana have been preparing for an inevitability like this their entire lives.
After their family moved from Mexico to Canada, Loopy became involved in martial arts as a teenager, with her younger sisters Ana and Karla focusing more on team sports. It wasn’t until Ana started playing rugby that she actually discovered wrestling for the first time.
“I did start rugby in high school and I really liked it,” Ana told MMA Fighting. “Then obviously I tried wrestling with my other sister Karla, who wrestles, and ended up liking it better. It was originally to make my tackles better. All throughout elementary school, we would do all the sports.
“Karla and I, since we’re only a year and a half apart, we would join all the same teams and then we would hog the ball with each other and partner up for everything just because we would trust each other the most. We did everything.”
With a six-year age gap between them, Ana actually credits Loopy as her first ever wrestling instructor alongside her high-school coach, who recognized her talent immediately after she got into the sport.
Loopy doesn’t want to take credit for Ana’s success, especially now that she’s stuck playing catch-up to her sister anytime they get to wrestle together.
“It’s crazy. Because I wasn’t a wrestler but I guess I saw some moves on TV and I did it a little bit of judo before,” Loopy said. “From there, we kind of pieced it all together and life happens and you start meeting people, new coaches.
“[My sisters are] way better wrestlers than I am. Now they can kick my ass. I’m so happy for them. You don’t see a full family of athletes and doing so good. I’m really proud of my family.”
In a very short period of time, Ana started getting noticed for her wrestling skills, which won her numerous tournaments and matches. Even she struggles to comprehend how quickly she picked up the sport considering she didn’t even know what wrestling was until she was in high school. Now, seven years later, she’s about to represent her adopted home country in the Olympics.
“I feel like when I had a little phase there where I was really hard on myself and I was losing a lot this one year, I think I lost most of my matches in that year,” Ana explained. “I was wrestling internationally and I [realized] I’ve only been wrestling for like five years at that point. I’m wrestling internationally and I never would have dreamed of this.
“When I first started wrestling, I didn’t believe I could win provincials (high school championships in Canada). It wasn’t an achievable goal for me, but I feel like I just tried to catch up. I played the catch-up game and I worked really, really hard with Karla and I was just super obsessed. I feel like I have an addictive personality, so I was super obsessed, I would watch video all the time, I would be in the gym and be on the mats for way too long. That caught me up.”
While Ana has already arrived in Paris as she prepares for the start of her matches on Aug. 9, she stayed in constant contact with Loopy, who travels to Mexico for her training camps.
When the sisters come together, they put in a lot of training time, but this time around, Ana admits it was a lot of text messages and phone calls to show support for each other.
“We still talk,” Ana said. “We FaceTime. When she’s home, we talk everyday on the phone, but right now when she’s in Mexico, our schedules don’t match really but we always message and sometimes we’ll FaceTime. It’s definitely a busy time. She’ll send me videos of her training and I’ll update her on my training.”
With the Olympics underway, Ana is only thinking about gold, but she’s also realistic about her future beyond wrestling. She hasn’t made any decisions yet, but having an older sister who’s already an established veteran in the UFC at least gives her an idea about a path she can travel down one day in the future.
“I definitely have interest in [MMA],” Ana said. “When I did go to Mexico and Vegas to help her train for her last fight, I learned a lot and I thought it was super fun. Obviously it’s actually different fighting someone.
“My focus obviously is wrestling right now, but I’ll probably try it out. If I want to fight someone, I will. I think it would be foolish not to try after wrestling is done.”
Loopy may be a little bit biased because she’ll always be her sister’s biggest supporter, but she also knows Ana is a tremendous competitor who’d fit right in if she decided to try MMA.
“When she was in Vegas, she was doing a little bit of sparring, a little bit of striking and I think she can get good really fast,” Loopy said. “I do see her taking that path.
“I’ll be there and she’s got me so I already know the way, so I can guide her. I’m excited. I’m really excited for her future, if she decides to do it full-time.”
