Helen Maroulis gets bronze, becomes first American woman to win three Olympic wrestling medals

PARIS (AP) — Helen Maroulis emphatically pushed her name back atop the list of U.S. women’s Olympic wrestling medalists.

Maroulis pinned Canada’s Hannah Taylor in 24 seconds to claim bronze medal in the 57-kilogram freestyle category on Friday. She is the first American woman to claim three Olympic medals, following her gold in Rio de Janeiro and her bronze in Tokyo.

Maroulis, 32, said as recently as Thursday she thought she was going to retire. Now, she’s not sure what she’ll do.

“I didn’t want to just, like, go out there and wrestle scared ... I really wanted to wrestle my very best,” she said. “And if is this is the last memory I have of myself on the mat, I wanted it to be something beautiful.”

The only American woman to make three Olympic teams, Maroulis broke the tie of two Olympic medals she shared with Sarah Hildebrandt, who won gold earlier in the week. No other American woman has more than one Olympic medal.

Maroulis wasn’t even sure she’d wrestle in Tokyo back in 2021 following issues with concussions. Her head cleared up days before competition began, and she was pleasantly surprised to earn bronze.

“I felt like I was back to my old self, got to wrestle the way that I always wanted to, and I was like, ‘Man, this is crazy. Like, why stop now?’” she said.

She continued to have success, leading her to expect more this time. She had hoped to become the first American woman to win two gold medals, and she was disappointed when she lost her semifinal 10-4 to the eventual gold medalist, Japan’s Sakurai Tsugumi.

She was dominant on Friday, and now, she’s got some thinking to do.

“It’s not that I’m holding on because of anything competitively or accolades,” she said through tears. “It’s like, I really do just like love what I get to do, you know?”

Maroulis was one of three American wrestlers to earn medals on Friday. Spencer Lee earned silver in men’s 57 kg freestyle and Aaron Brooks took bronze in the men’s 86 kg freestyle division.

Japan’s Higuchi Rei defeated Lee with a takedown in the closing seconds of the 57 kg freestyle final. Higuchi had earned a silver medal in Rio.

Lee, a three-time national champion at Iowa, beat Tokyo bronze medalist Thomas Gilman at the Olympic Trials to qualify, then he won his first three matches in Paris to reach the final.

Aaron Brooks earned his bronze with a 5-0 win over Uzbekistan’s Javrail Shapiev.

It’s been a big year for Brooks — he won his fourth collegiate national title for Penn State, then defeated 2021 Olympic gold medalist David Taylor at Olympic trials. He opened his first Olympics by knocking off No. 1 seed Azamat Dauletbekov of Kazakhstan 4-3. .

American Kyle Dake, who earned bronze in Tokyo, lost to Japan’s Daichi Takatani 20-12 in the 74 kg freestyle semifinal. Dake was a four-time national champion at Cornell and is a four-time world champion. He will wrestle for bronze on Saturday against either Cuba’s Geandry Garzon or Serbia’s Hetik Cabolov.