US wrestler Maroulis makes history, qualifies for 3rd Olympics
LOS ANGELES: Helen Maroulis, the first American woman to win a wrestling gold medal, became the first US female wrestler to qualify for three Summer Games as she earned a spot on Saturday night on the American team for Paris.
Maroulis, competing at 57 kgs, dominated former Olympian Jacarra Winchester in a bestof-three series.
The two-time Olympic medalist Maroulis topped Winchester with a pin in the first match and a 6-0 decision in the second, sweeping the series. With a bloodied nose, Maroulis bowed to a sea of cheering fans before having her arm raised by the official at the Bryce Jordan Center on Penn State’s campus.
“It just makes me think back to myself as a little girl, and if you told me that I was gonna do this, I don’t think I would’ve believed you,” Maroulis said, adding she wasn’t aware she was breaking a record.
Maroulis became the first woman wrestler to win two Olympic medals for the US when she earned bronze at 57 kg in Tokyo. Now 32, she captured her gold medal at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
“I definitely think that I’m coming into a peak season right now,” Maroulis said.
A Maryland native, Maroulis wrestles and trains with the powerhouse Sunkist Kids Wrestling Club in Arizona.
Winchester was an Olympian for the US at 53 kg in Tokyo and was a world champion in 2019 at 55 kg. Winchester was originally slated to wrestle at 53 kg but didn’t make the weight cutoff, forcing her up to 57 kg.
All six of the women who were earning spots on the US team on Saturday qualify directly for the Olympic tournament in Paris this summer, avoiding an international qualifying tournament.
LEWIS PREDICTS ‘TREMENDOUS’ SPRINT COMPETITION IN PARIS: Nine-time Olympic gold medallist Carl Lewis is looking forward to “tremendous” sprint competition at the Paris Olympics, where he expects organizers to pull out all the stops.
“I think Paris is going to be fabulous, incredible,” Lewis said Saturday at the Mt. SAC Relays east of Los Angeles.
“It’s a wonderful country. It’s a beautiful city. And I know they’re going to integrate the culture and the ideas and being the 100th anniversary (of the 1924 Paris Games), I think it’s going to be an absolutely fabulous Olympics.”
Lewis, who established himself as an Olympic force when he won 100m, 200m, long jump and 4x100m relay gold at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics and earned his final Olympic gold in Atlanta in 1996, said he’s pleased to see athletes from a range of nations challenging in the sprints at the highest level.
“It’s their time and I love it,” the 62-year-old said of the young athletes on the rise now. “I work at the University of Houston. So I’m working with athletes. I’m really happy to see the kids running hard, running well. I”m glad to see the sprints are more global, there are more athletes from around the world. I think it makes it better.
“And I think it’s going to be tremendous competition,” added Lewis, who noted that since Jamaican great Usain Bolt won back to back world titles in 2013 and 2015 four different men had won the 100m world title.