Women's Freestyle Thoughts
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Helen Maroulis pinned her way to the finals including wins over Russia and Japan. You know those countries are scouting her signature foot sweeps and ties yet she put them away to waltz to another world championship final. Her unbelievable performance was capped off with a comeback win in the finals. It was a gutsy low scoring affair that with ten seconds left she snapped a front headlock to then hit an inside trip to set off a flurry for a takedown. It is her 5th World/Olympic gold and medal number 11 which passes Adeline Gray for most by an American woman. Kyle Snyder and Jordan Burroughs also have ten medals. After 2018, many fans hoped we could still just see Helen continue to compete to 2020, and yet here we see her with a foot on the gas to 2028 and possibly passing Bruce Baumgartner’s 13 medals before Burroughs, Snyder, and Gray have a chance.
Japan continued their dominance in Women’s Wrestling, but 6 medals is their lowest since 2019. I can’t imagine thinking 5 golds and a bronze is a poor performance for any team, but it is weird to see them not medal in 4 brackets. Japan’s team continues to carry the torch even after all the worldwide growth in the sport.
Not having Amit Elor (pregnancy) and Sarah Hildebrandt (retired but then got lured out by RAF) certainly hurt Team USA in the standings, but there certainly doesn’t seem reason to panic. Americans have a lot of young talent and it’s a long road until 2028. Kylie Welker and Kennedy Blades have 2 World/Olympic medals already before they are out of college.
North Korea having four finalists and five medals to finish 2nd in the team standings wasn’t on anyone’s bingo card. Them showing up with very good wrestlers is not new, but it’s usually just a couple. Obviously, it’s interesting to see if their success has them push even harder towards 2028.
Ecuador got their first ever world champion when Genesis Reasco won at 76 kg. I remember texting Jason Bryant during Pan Am’s a few years ago asking about Ecuador’s program and how it seemed it was surging. Lucia Yepez made the finals at 53 kg to win her third straight World/Olympic medal at just 24 years-old. Ecuador finished 8th in the women’s team standings which is the 2nd highest Pan Am country.
Cuba’s Milaimys Marin won bronze at 76 kg to add to her Olympic bronze last year at the Olympics at just age 24. Cuba, with limited resources, appeared to just send their medal threats and it’s obviously smart to include her.
Tatiana Renteria (Columbia) did not wrestle this week. She won bronze at the 2024 Olympics, and qualified by winning bronze in 2023. Marin and Adeline Gray (USA) also qualified giving Pan Am countries 5 spots (could have been more at the last chance). It really worked out perfectly that Reasco and Canada got the 2 spots at the Pan Am qualifier. I bring this up because things may not go perfectly in 2027. If only one or two Pan Am countries makes a medal match at the 2027 World Championship, the path to Olympic qualification could get really difficult. Argentina has a young wrestler who could improve, plus Mexico and Puerto Rico are more and more capitalizing on American college wrestlers. This could be something to keep an eye on.
I wrote about 68 kg being the deepest weight class. Japan’s Ishii won gold after coming back down from 72 kg ending Japan’s gold drought at this weight. My preview did not include Bulgaria’s Yuliana Yaneva who earned her first medal by making the finals at age 27 so I don’t exactly feel embarrassed. She qualified for the Olympics at 76 kg so maybe the drop is what she needed. It was an outstanding performance which certainly wasn’t the benefit of a dream draw. She had wins over Russia, North Korea, the Romanian who was a favorite, and Long (China) another favorite. There was also a controversial takedown call at the end of the first in the finals. She did win the European Championship this year so it’ll be interesting to watch her progress this quad. It was Bulgaria’s only medal this world championship down from 3 in 2023 which was one bronze in each style.
