Helen Maroulis and Adeline Gray with their World gold medals (Photo/John Sachs, Tech-Fall.com)Both U.S. women won gold medals on Thursday night and did so in dominant fashion. Maroulis, a Maryland native, went unscored upon throughout the entire event. Gray outscored her opposition 49-4.
It's the first time since 2012 that multiple U.S. women's freestyle wrestlers became World champions in the same year.
"Any time you have two World champions crowned, it's a great day," said U.S. women's freestyle coach Terry Steiner.
The 23-year-old Maroulis was firing on all cylinders in the gold-medal match against Russia's Irina Ologonova. Maroulis was offensive-minded -- scoring three takedowns in the first period -- and stingy defensively, not allowing Ologonova to get to her strongest positions. Maroulis led 7-0 at the break. In the second period she picked up right where she left off in the first period, scoring two more takedowns to win the match 11-0 by technical superiority.
"Helen's a champion, and we knew it," said Steiner. "She's a rising star. Today she rose."
Helen Maroulis and her coach Valentin Kalika embrace after the gold-medal match (Photo/Jeff Beshey, The Guillotine)"As a technical coach he's the greatest technical coach I've ever seen," Maroulis said of Kalika, who also works with Aaron Pico, Elena Pirozhkova and Victoria Anthony. "He's just a genius, the way he thinks. He's not the kind of coach that you can just go up to and say, 'Hey, show me a move. He has a philosophy and he has a system in the way he shows you, you really have to trust him and believe in it."
With 55 kilos not included among the six women's freestyle weight classes in the Olympic Games, Maroulis said she plans on moving down to the Olympic weight class of 53 kilos for 2016.
The 24-year-old Gray faced China's Qian Zhou in the gold-medal match, and for most of the match it appeared that one score might decide the outcome. Zhou took down Gray in the first period. Grey put a point on the scoreboard when Zhou was unable to score when on the shot clock, and the first period ended 2-1 in favor of Zhou. Then with around two minutes remaining in the match things changed in a hurry. Gray scored a takedown off a double leg and used a turn to go up 5-2, and then another broke the match open with another turn to make it 7-2. A short time later Gray locked up a lace and rolled to a 13-2 technical superiority.
Adeline Gray gets in on a shot against Qian Zhou in the gold-medal match (Photo/Jeff Beshey, The Guillotine)The U.S. has never had an Olympic champion in women's freestyle wrestling.
"We have a couple World champs here," said Gray. "There are some amazing wrestlers out there from the USA that have been on that podium, gotten their hand raised and had their national anthem, but we don't have that Olympic gold medalist. That is something Team USA needs. We need that Olympic gold medalist, and I hope to be that first one for Team USA."
Japan's Kaori Icho won her 10th World title, defeating Petra Maarit Olli of Finland by 10-0 technical superiority in the gold-medal match. Icho also has three Olympic gold medals. She becomes the third Japanese women's freestyle wrestler to win a gold medal in Las Vegas, joining Eri Tosaka and Saori Yoshida, who won World titles on Wednesday.
Japan was denied a fourth gold medal in women's freestyle when Battsetseg Soronzonbold of Mongolia won by fall in 37 seconds over Risako Kawai of Japan in the gold-medal match at 63 kilos.
Frank Chamizo became Italy's first World champion in men's freestyle (Photo/Jeff Beshey, The Guillotine)Men's freestyle wrestlers Reece Humphrey (61 kilos), Jake Herbert (86 kilos) and Kyle Snyder (97 kilos) will compete for the U.S. on Friday at the World Championships. Leigh Jaynes-Provisor will also compete for the U.S. in women's freestyle. Wrestling gets underway on Friday at 10 a.m. PT.
Day 4 (Thursday) Medalists
55 kilos:
Gold: Helen Maroulis (USA)
Silver: Irina Ologonova (Russia)
Bronze: Evelina Nikolova (Bulgaria)
Bronze: Tetyana Kit (Ukraine)
58 kilos:
Gold: Kaori Icho (Japan)
Silver: Petra Olli (Finland)
Bronze: Elif Yeslirmak (Turkey)
Bronze: Yuliya Ratkevich (Azerbaijan)
63 kilos:
Gold: Battsetseg Soronzonbold (Mongolia)
Silver: Risako Kawai (Japan)
Bronze: Yulia Tkach (Ukraine)
Bronze: Taybe Yusein (Bulgaria)
75 kilos:
Gold: Adeline Gray (USA)
Silver: Qian Zhou (China)
Bronze: Mae Epp (Estonia)
Bronze: Vasilisa Marzaliuk (Belarus)
65 kilos:
Gold: Frank Chamizo (Italy)
Silver: Ikhtiyor Navruzov (Uzbekistan)
Bronze: Soslan Ramonov (Russia)
Bronze: Sayed Mohammadi (Iran)
Recommended Comments
There are no comments to display.
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now