Luisa Wilson has a lot on her plate.
The former Aurora Barbarian rugby player is on not one, but two senior national teams, both the Mexico women’s ice hockey and rugby teams. She also has exams next week, with Wilson currently studying to become a physical therapist at university in Mexico City.
“It’s complicated, but my parents help me out a lot. They help me make sure I’m keeping my schedule,” she said. “It’s good to be able to have a really good support to fall back onto when it gets hard.”
Born in Mexico with a Canadian father — who played rugby for Mexico himself — Wilson moved to Canada when she was 12, and joined the Aurora Barbarians, starting with the club in the under-15 girls team in 2019, and winning a provincial 15s title with the under-18 girls team in 2022.
Since last summer, Wilson has been living in Mexico City, balancing the two sports and her studies.
She was recently called up to the senior Mexico sevens team, which won the Rugby Americas North 7s tournament, qualifying for the SVNS Series Challenger Cup, the second-tier competition of the global rugby sevens tour.
The call-up happened quickly for Wilson, who had been playing with Mexico’s under-20 team since 2022.
“It was really cool to be able to play with those players instead of just watching them,” she said, describing her debut match. “It was really inspiring because they’ve been playing for so long, and being able to be at a tournament where you’re representing your country is always exciting.”
Rugby is still not widespread through Mexico, according to Wilson, but it’s growing, with a strong league in Mexico City, and large sponsors starting to back the team.
“A lot of new girls are coming to the sport, and I think that’s one of the reasons we were able to do so well in the tournament as well, because we’re getting a lot more support and the senior girls are seeing that there’s more girls coming up, so they’re getting inspired to be role models, and I think that’s really incredible,” she added.
Ice hockey
Representing her country is not new for Wilson, who has been on the senior women’s ice hockey team since she was 16.
The team is set to head off to a pre-Olympic qualifying tournament in Poland next month, when the team will face off against South Korea, Poland, and Chinese Taipei.
“We’ve never been to the Olympics,” she said of the Mexican woman’s ice hockey team. “It’s a work in process, but it’s a small sport in Mexico.”
But Wilson has seen success on the ice with her country.
She won the gold medal with her team in the girls’ 3x3 mixed tournament at the 2020 Winter Youth Olympics in Lausanne, Switzerland. In recognition of that success, Wilson was listed among Forbes’ 100 Most Powerful Women of Mexico in 2020.
“I think I would love to play professional for either sport; I’m not sure which one yet,” she said. “I really like them both. I would like to be able to play professionally in both, if possible, but ... there’s a lot of time to grow, a lot of time to develop, and lots of time to see where it takes me.”
As rugby continues to grow in Mexico, Wilson may have to face her former Canada.
“It’s going to be fun to be able to play against a place that’s really close to me,” she said. “I think because Canada has really good rugby too, it’s always fun to play against players that are good, because as an athlete, I always want to be able to play against the best of the best.
“I feel like that’s the goal for a lot of athletes, and if we get to play against them, I think it would just be an honour to get to play at such a high level of rugby.”
