Helen Maroulis was unscored upon in the first session (Photo/Mark Lundy, Lutte-Lens.com)PARIS -- The USA women's wrestling team is off to a marvelous start at the World Wrestling Championships in Paris.
Helen Maroulis will wrestle for gold, while teammate Becka Leathers will go for bronze.
Maroulis, who competes at 58 kilograms, is looking to capture her second world title. She won gold at 55 kilograms at the 2015 World Championships in Las Vegas.
Last summer, Maroulis won an Olympic gold medal in Rio by defeating Japanese wrestling legend Saori Yoshida, becoming the United States' first-ever Olympic champion in women's wrestling.
After three straight technical falls, Maroulis defeated Michelle Fazzari of Canada 10-0 in the semifinals. In the finals, she will face Marwa Amri of Tunisia, who became the first-ever African women's wrestler to reach the finals at the World Championships.
The most impressive stat by Maroulis, is that she hasn't surrendered a single point these championships, outscoring her four opponents 41-0.
Maroulis has moved up two weight classes since last year, but said not much has changed.
"I came in with the same mentality that I always come in, whether I'm 116 pounds or 127 I don't think [the weight class] should change that," Maroulis said. "I wrestle for God. I wrestle to honor him."
Contrary to Maroulis dominant performance, Leathers (55 kilograms) had to take a detour to reach the medal round. She made the quarterfinals by pinning Ramona Galambos of Hungary. Leathers then lost 8-0 to Cadet world champion Haruna Okuna of Japan. Leathers gained a repechage match when Okuna reached the finals.
In her repechage match, Leathers beat Carola Rainero of Italy by technical fall 13-2. She will wrestle Bilyana Dudova of Bulgaria for a bronze medal.
The other two Americans to compete today were Mallory Velte (63 kilograms) and Victoria Francis (75 kilograms). Neither were successful in their first matches of the day.
Velte faced Blessing Oborududu of Nigeria and started strong, earning the first points on the board with an early takedown. But her lead was short lived as Oborududu began an offensive attack of her own and eventually winning 10-2.
Velte was eliminated from competition when Oborududu lost in the quarterfinals, making her ineligible for a repechage match.
Holding back tears, Velte mentioned that she needs more experience moving forward.
"There isn't much to say," Velte said. "I didn't show up as well as I could have. Adding some experience from this and watching the Olympics it's a lot of hard work and showing up on the day."
Francis had to face a tough opponent in Gulmaral Yerkeybayeva in her opening match. She found herself in an 8-1 deficit, and cut the score to 8-3. But she would not get any closer as Yerkeybayeva would score again making the final score 10-3.
Francis was no longer able to gain a repechage match when Yerkeybayeva lost her next match.
Velte and Francis, both first-time member of the U.S. World Team, are 22 and 23 respectively.
The finals begin at 7 p.m. local time, 1 p.m. ET.
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