Helen Maroulis with the American flag after winning gold in Paris (Photo/Mark Lundy, Lutte-Lens.com)PARIS -- Few wrestling fans doubted that Helen Maroulis, the 2015 world champion and 2016 Olympic gold medalist, would win another world title this year. It was just a question of in what kind of fashion she would win. As it turned out, it was nothing short of dominant.
Maroulis defended her title by outscoring her five opponents 53-0. In the finals against Tunisian Marwa Amri, it was a show from start to finish. Beginning with a ground shaking foot sweep, sending her opponent sprawling, much to the awe of the crowd for a gigantic four-point move.
Maroulis followed that with two more takedowns before finishing the match with a turn to make the final score 11-0.
Maroulis said she thought about not giving up points after the semifinals, but it wasn't her goal.
She referenced a quote she likes, 'Discernment isn't knowing the difference between right and wrong, it's the difference between right and almost right.'
"It's not a bad thing to want to go for a tech," Maroulis said. "But if (getting a tech) is the focus, I might miss out on some other things. If I have to wrestle smart to win a 1-0 match, I'm not going to get greedy or cocky to put another tech on the board I'm about glorifying God and in that process winning."
Her coach Valentin Kalika joked about how great Maroulis is getting, saying it's hard to find her workout partners and at this point she almost has to train with the men.
"She finished almost all her matches in the first period," Kalika said." She put up 53 points and she gave up zero points, so I'm happy."
Maroulis says after this she is still training and focusing on taking it one day at a time, although she was dominant she can still find room for improvement. The goal for both she and Kalika was to be the best in the world, and for another year she owns that title.
Becka Leathers won a bronze medal at 55 kilograms (Photo/Mark Lundy, Lutte-Lens.com)Like Maroulis, Becka Leathers has goals of being the best wrestler in the world at her weight class, but for now she takes her bronze medal with pride.
In the bronze-medal match, Leathers scored a takedown on a counter attack, then used back points to increase her lead to 4-0 going into the break. That was as much scoring as Leathers would do for the entire match as she seemingly went into cruise coming out in the second period and fought off shot attempts to defeat Bilyana Dudova of Bulgaria 4-2. It was her mindset that helped her get the victory and claim the bronze medal.
"Discipline, be stingy, take advantage when it's there," Leathers said. "I wasn't planning to not score anymore points (after the break), but that's the way it crumbled."
Now that she has her hands on a bronze medal, she has the confidence and experience. She now must figure out how to reach the top of the podium.
"I'm going to keep working hard and figure out how to beat those Japanese girls (she lost to eventual champion Haruna Okuno of Japan), and figure out how to beat everyone else."
The women's wrestling competition continues on Thursday at 10 a.m. local time with the 48 kilograms, 53 kilograms, 60 kilograms and 69 kilograms being contested.
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