From hospital room to boxing ring, Jayden Trudell turns vicious assault into Olympic dream
One week before Jayden Trudell was rushed to hospital in critical condition, he enrolled in a class at Border City Boxing, unknowing of a vicious assault he would later suffer by an older group of boys.
The attack near W.F. Herman Secondary School on Sept. 12, 2018, left him with a fractured skull, brain bleeding, hearing damage, a debilitating concussion and post traumatic stress disorder.
Due to the severity of his injuries, doctors told him he would never be able to box again and suggested finding another sport.
Now five years after the attack, the 19-year-old is vying for a spot at the summer Olympics.
"After all the bullying in school, feeling like a victim, feeling weak. I just found this is something I could do to make me not feel that way," Trudell told CBC News.
Jayden Trudell and his coach Andre Gorges. (Jacob Barker/CBC)
Following the attack, Trudell's grandfather took him to Border City Boxing on Drouillard Road where he met his now coach, Andre Gorges. Gorges was reluctant to take him on because he wasn't able to fight, per doctor's orders, but he was able to train.
"So he got in the ring and he started doing some shadow boxing and I said you know what, he's not bad, let me take him on and see what he does from here," Gorges said.
Point to prove
For two years, Trudell trained with the hope doctors would clear him to compete, putting all of his energy into getting faster and stronger — and it paid off.
"I never seen nobody work this hard. I will probably never ever see another human work this hard coming through those doors again," said Gorges.
The gym, a safe haven for Trudell as the bullying at school raged on.
"The attack was bad but what came after the attack, like all the bullying … That was probably way worse than the attack itself. I was just a kid with a big target on my back," Trudell said.
"[Boxing] was the only outlook, good outlook I had because school was terrible. I had no friends, no anything, so this is all I looked forward to everyday," said Trudell.
After about two years, doctors cleared Trudell to compete and he hasn't stopped winning since.
Fight to the top
In just a year and a half he's won both the provincial and national boxing championships in his weight class and won gold in a major tournament in Finland in April.
"It doesn't even really feel real in a sense. It's like a Cinderella story, it just seems like something you watch or a movie. It doesn't feel real to me," said Trudell.
Jayden Trudell and his coach spar at the Border City Boxing ring as Trudell prepares for an Olympic qualifying tournament in December. (Jacob Barker/CBC)
The next hurdle for Trudell is the Olympic trials in Montreal in December. He will be competing against a higher weight class as his current one isn't an Olympic category.
Trudell said he isn't too concerned.
"I just have a fire in me and when it's go time, I am there, I am fighting."
Full circle
Watching Trudell from just outside the ring, his grandfather — who followed the ambulance from Windsor to London on that day in September 2018 and who has advocated tirelessly for the boy following the assault and through the court case that ensued — can't help but smile.
"This probably isn't the sport I would have preferred him in, or his mother or his grandmother. I suggested bowling to him one time but that didn't go over too big," Kevin Trudell said with a chuckle.
He recalls a memory of Jayden calling him while struggling with his mental health asking Kevin to drive him to the gym — a place Jayden has always fit in.
Kevin Trudell is quick to point out all the pictures of his grandson on the walls and the impact Jayden has had on some of the younger kids he coaches at Border City Boxing.
"This place has been Jayden's saving grace," said Kevin Trudell.
"This place has made Jayden who he is today."
