It was in a gym in Fredericton, New Brunswick where a young Taylor Follensbee told her father that she would one day have the chance to represent Canada on the international stage.

That dream will come true this week as the Moose Jaw wrestler travels down to Brazil to compete for Canada at the 2018 FISU World University Wrestling Championship.

Follensbee will hit the mat starting on Thursday and hopes to gain some more experience in her drive to one day be on top in Canada.

"There's was a lot of emotions the night that I found out," said Follensbee of the moment she found out that she'd have the opportunity to compete on the international stage.

The University of Saskatchewan wrestler is a four-time medalist at the Canada West Championship and has two career medals at the U Sports Championship. Her stellar performances with the Huskies helped her stand out in one of the most competitive weight classes in the country.

Follensbee said she has to push herself to be better every time that she steps on the mat.

"I've had one of the toughest weight classes since high school, so any opportunity to go compete internationally is always a nice opportunity," said Follensbee, who will be competing in the 76-kilogram weight class.

The 76kg class in Canada has multiple world championship medalists as well as the defending Olympic gold medalist. Follensbee said that while being in that class brings more competition than normal, it also gives her the opportunity to see how she stacks up against the best in the world.

"It's a really good measuring stick when I'm starting to make some progress, you go to these tournaments and I may lose to these women because they've had so many more years of experience," she said. "I can see where I'm at, I can see that I've made gains here or doing these things that two years ago, I was struggling to. It's a little hard sometimes, but I take the lessons one step at a time."

This week will be Follensbee's first opportunity to test herself at the international level and marks a big step in her career as she strives to compete against the best. 

She said she's heading into this week's world championship without any expectations.

"I'm just hoping to go and wrestle, which sounds like a stereotypical response, but my goal is to just go and wrestle and if I wrestle the way that I know how to and the way that I can, then the byproduct of wrestling to the best of my abilities will be winning," said Follensbee.

"This is a really good test to my abilities as an athlete and as a person to see what I can do because I'm basically going down there by myself, none of my coaches or normal support system are going, so it's going to be a really good test of what I can achieve."

Click here for results from Follensbee’s time at the FISU World University Wrestling Championship.