Three-time Olympic medalist Helen Maroulis has returned to competitive wrestling, securing a spot on the U.S. team for the upcoming World Championships in Croatia after dominating Amanda Martinez at Saturday’s Final X event.
“To be honest, I didn’t want to come back,” Maroulis revealed after her victory. “I was so at peace with it. I had moved on to jiu-jitsu. I love jiu-jitsu. I was like, oh, similar sport, but way less hard on the body. About eight weeks out, I decided to come back to wrestling. One day, God just told me to go back to Phoenix (to train). I went back, and it was like all of a sudden in a week, I just moved out of my place in New York and trained full-time.”
The 33-year-old wrestler, who made history in 2016 as the first American woman to win Olympic gold in wrestling, will now represent the United States at 57kg in what will be her 15th career Olympic or world team appearance dating back to 2008.
Maroulis is currently tied with Adeline Gray for the most combined Olympic and world medals for a U.S. female wrestler with 10. She stands alone as the only U.S. female wrestler to earn three Olympic medals, having captured bronze in both Tokyo and Paris to complement her historic gold.
Her path back to the mat hasn’t been without challenges. Maroulis briefly retired in 2019 due to concussions and post-traumatic stress disorder, and recently overcame additional health obstacles including a mast cell histamine issue.
“I was really questioning, should I be back?” she admitted. “But then everything comes together at the end.”
Maroulis will be joined on the world championship team by Paris Olympic silver medalists Kennedy Blades and Spencer Lee, who also swept their best-of-three series at Final X. Blades, 21, moved down from her Olympic weight of 76kg to 68kg to make her first senior world team, while Lee qualified for his first senior worlds after already claiming world championships at the U17 and U20 levels.
In another notable result, Zahid Valencia swept two-time Olympic bronze medalist Kyle Dake at 86kg. This marks the first time since 2017 that Dake, a four-time world champion, has been defeated for a world team spot.
The U.S. team will be without Paris gold medalists Sarah Hildebrandt, who has retired, and Amit Elor, who missed Final X due to health reasons. Meanwhile, recent high school graduate PJ Duke made history as one of the youngest Americans ever to qualify for a senior world championship team.
The World Championships are scheduled to take place in Croatia this September, where Maroulis will have the opportunity to add to her already impressive medal collection.
