Helen Louise Maroulis ( el, Ελένη Μαρούλη; born September 19, 1991) is an American

freestyle wrestler Freestyle wrestling is a style of wrestling originated from Great Britain and the United States. Along with Greco-Roman, it is one of the two styles of wrestling contested in the Olympic Games. American high school and men's college wrestling i ...

who competes in the women's 55-kg 53-kg and 57-kg categories. She was a gold medalist at the 2015 World Wrestling Championships in

Las Vegas Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. N ...

and a gold medalist at the

2011 Pan American Games The 2011 Pan American Games, officially the XVI Pan American Games, was an international multi-sport event that was held from October 14–30, 2011, in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico. Some events were held in the nearby cities of Ciudad Guzmán, ...

Guadalajara Guadalajara ( , ) is a metropolis in western Mexico and the capital of the list of states of Mexico, state of Jalisco. According to the 2020 census, the city has a population of 1,385,629 people, making it the 7th largest city by population in Me ...

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

. At the

2016 Summer Olympics The 2016 Summer Olympics ( pt, Jogos Olímpicos de Verão de 2016), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad ( pt, Jogos da XXXI Olimpíada) and also known as Rio 2016, was an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 20 ...

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a b ...

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

she became the first-ever American to win a gold medal in women's freestyle wrestling at the Olympic Games.

Background

Maroulis was born in

Rockville, Maryland Rockville is a city that serves as the county seat of Montgomery County, Maryland, and is part of the Baltimore–Washington metropolitan area. The 2020 census tabulated Rockville's population at 67,117, making it the fifth-largest community in ...

, the daughter of Paula and Yiannis "John" Maroulis. Her father is Greek. She attended

Magruder High School Col. Zadok Magruder High School (#510) is a secondary public school located in Rockville ( Montgomery County), Maryland, United States. Magruder is named for Colonel Zadok Magruder, a Revolutionary War patriot and farmer. He was colonel in comma ...

for three years, where as a freshman she became the first female wrestler to place at the

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...

state wrestling championships. She was also named Most Outstanding Wrestler of a tournament, by pinning a senior boy who had won the year before, and finished high school with 99 career victories. She then moved to

Marquette Senior High School Marquette Senior High School (MSHS) is a public, coeducational high school located in Marquette, Michigan, serving grades 9–12. The school enrolled 968 students in 2021-22, making it the largest high school in the Upper Peninsula. History ...

Marquette, Michigan Marquette ( ) is a city in Marquette County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 20,629 at the 2020 United States Census, which makes it the largest city in the Upper Peninsula. Marquette serves as the seat of government of Marquett ...

and then went to join Missouri Baptist University women's wrestling team in Saint Louis, Missouri, before ultimately transferring to compete for

Simon Fraser University Simon Fraser University (SFU) is a public research university in British Columbia, Canada, with three campuses, all in Greater Vancouver: Burnaby (main campus), Surrey, and Vancouver. The main Burnaby campus on Burnaby Mountain, located from ...

in Burnaby,

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. At the age-group level, Maroulis was a three-time Junior World medalist (bronze in 2008 & 2010, silver in 2011). As of 2014, she trained at the U.S. Olympic Education Center at

Northern Michigan University Northern Michigan University (Northern Michigan, Northern or NMU) is a public university in Marquette, Michigan. It was established in 1899 by the Michigan Legislature as Northern State Normal School. In 1963, the state designated Northern a uni ...

. Her grandparents emigrated to the United States from the Greek island

Kalamos Kalamos ( grc, Κάλαμος, lit=reed, reed pen; la, Calamus) is a Greek mythological figure. He is son of Maiandros, the god of the Maeander river. Mythology A story in Nonnus's ''Dionysiaca'' tells about the love of two youths, Kalamos and K ...

in the 1960s. Maroulis visited her father's island a few weeks after her victory at Rio, and was given an award by the local community.

Rio Summer Olympics 2016

Maroulis beat

Saori Yoshida is a Japanese former freestyle wrestler. Starting in 1998 she won almost every major competition, including three Olympic Games, four Asian Games, and 13 world championships, and became the most decorated athlete in freestyle wrestling history. ...

4-1 to win a gold medal at the 2016 Rio Olympics. This was the first Olympic gold medal for the United States in a women's wrestling event.

World Championship 2017

Maroulis won her third consecutive gold medal at the world championships or Olympics defeating Olympic bronze medalist Marwa Amri of Tunisia in the finals of the 58-kilogram/128-pound weight class with an 11-0 technical fall.

Pro Wrestling League

On January 16, 2018,

Pooja Dhanda Pooja Dhanda (born 1 January 1994) is an Indian wrestler from Budana village of Hisar district in Haryana,

defeated Maroulis in the Pro Wrestling League.

World Championship 2018

Maroulis was defeated in the first round by fall by Azerbaijan’s Alyona Kolesnik, a shocking upset for the defending world and Olympic champion. The defeat has been attributed to a serious head injury (concussion from a tournament in January 2018). As Maroulis stated in post-match interview “I’m so used to telling someone, hey, don’t touch my head.” The injury was significant enough to cause Maroulis to delay her world team qualifier match, and significantly limited her live sparring prior to the event. It is reported that she was so limited by the injury that she only returned to live practice about 10 days before her rescheduled qualifying series.

Tokyo Summer Olympics 2020

Maroulis won a bronze medal by defeating Mongolia’s Khongorzul Boldsaikhan after losing to Risako Kawai of Japan in the 57kg semifinals. With the bronze medal, Maroulis became the first female wrestler in U.S. history to win two Olympic medals.

Ivan Yariguin Grand Prix 2022

Maroulis won a gold medal in the 57kg finals by forfeit as her opponent Olga Khoroshavtseva of Russia withdrew.

Match results

! colspan="7", World Championships & Olympics , - ! Res. ! Record ! Opponent ! Score ! Date ! Event ! Location , - ! style=background:white colspan=8 , , - , Win , 32-7 , align=left , Anshu Malik , style="font-size:88%", Fall , style="font-size:88%", October 7, 2021 , style="font-size:88%" rowspan=3, 2021 World Championship , style="text-align:left;font-size:88%;" rowspan=3,

Oslo Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of ...

, - , Win , 31-7 , align=left , Veronika Chumikova , style="font-size:88%", 10–1 , style="font-size:88%" rowspan=2, October 6, 2021 , - , Win , 30-7 , align=left , Jeannie Kessler , style="font-size:88%", Fall , - ! style=background:white colspan=8 , , - , Win , 29-7 , align=left , Boldsaikhany Khongorzul , style="font-size:88%", 11-0 , style="font-size:88%", August 5, 2021 , style="font-size:88%" rowspan=4,

2020 Summer Olympics The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the ...

, style="text-align:left;font-size:88%;" rowspan=4,

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

, - , Loss , 28-7 , align=left , Risako Kawai , style="font-size:88%", 1–2 , style="font-size:88%" rowspan=3, August 4, 2021 , - , Win , 28-6 , align=left , Tetyana Kit , style="font-size:88%", 8-0 , - , Win , 27-6 , align=left , Rong Ningning , style="font-size:88%", 8-4 , - ! style=background:white colspan=8 , , - , Loss , 26-7 , align=left ,

Alyona Kolesnik Alyona Kolesnik (born 29 January 1995) is a Ukrainian-Azerbaijani freestyle wrestler. She is a three-time bronze medalist at the European Wrestling Championships. She is also a two-time silver medalist at the Islamic Solidarity Games. She won bro ...

, style="font-size:88%", Fall , style="font-size:88%" , October 24, 2018 , style="font-size:88%" , 2018 World Championships , style="text-align:left;font-size:88%;",

Budapest Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...

, - ! style=background:white colspan=8 , , - , Win , 26-6 , align=left , Marwa Amri , style="font-size:88%", 11-0 , style="font-size:88%" rowspan=5, August 23, 2017 , style="font-size:88%" rowspan=5, 2017 World Championship , style="text-align:left;font-size:88%;" rowspan=5,

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

, - , Win , 25-6 , align=left , Michelle Fazzari , style="font-size:88%", 10-0 , - , Win , 24-6 , align=left , Yessica Oviedo , style="font-size:88%", 11-0 , - , Win , 23-6 , align=left , Elin Nilsson , style="font-size:88%", 10-0 , - , Win , 22-6 , align=left , Hanbit Kim , style="font-size:88%", 10-0 , - ! style=background:white colspan=8 , , - , Win , 21-6 , align=left ,

, style="font-size:88%", 4-1 , style="font-size:88%" rowspan=5, August 18, 2016 , style="font-size:88%" rowspan=5,

, style="text-align:left;font-size:88%;" rowspan=5,

, - , Win , 20-6 , align=left ,

Sofia Mattsson Sofia Magdalena Mattsson (born 11 November 1989) is a Swedish wrestler, who has won a World Championship, four European championships and an Olympic bronze medal. Profile Born in Gällivare, she is one of the highest-ranking female wrestler ...

, style="font-size:88%", Fall , - , Win , 19-6 , align=left , Jong Myong-suk , style="font-size:88%", 7-4 , - , Win , 18-6 , align=left , Zhong Xuechun , style="font-size:88%", 10-0 , - , Win , 17-6 , align=left , Yuliya Khalvadzhy , style="font-size:88%", 12-1 , - ! style=background:white colspan=8 , , - , Win , 16-6 , align=left , Irina Ologonova , style="font-size:88%", 11-0 , style="font-size:88%" rowspan=4, September 10, 2015 , style="font-size:88%" rowspan=4, 2015 World Championship , style="text-align:left;font-size:88%;" rowspan=4,

, NV , - , Win , 15-6 , align=left , Pang Qianyu , style="font-size:88%", 5-0 , - , Win , 14-6 , align=left , Evelina Nikolova , style="font-size:88%", fall , - , Win , 13-6 , align=left , Brenda Fernández , style="font-size:88%", 10-0 , - ! style=background:white colspan=8 , , - , Win , 12-6 , align=left , Katarzyna Krawczyk , style="font-size:88%", 10-0 , style="font-size:88%" rowspan=4, September 10, 2014 , style="font-size:88%" rowspan=4, 2014 World Championship , style="text-align:left;font-size:88%;" rowspan=4,

Tashkent Tashkent (, uz, Toshkent, Тошкент/, ) (from russian: Ташкент), or Toshkent (; ), also historically known as Chach is the capital and largest city of Uzbekistan. It is the most populous city in Central Asia, with a population of ...

, - , Loss , 11-6 , align=left , Chiho Hamada , style="font-size:88%", 2-6 , - , Win , 11-5 , align=left , Altansetsegiin Battsetseg , style="font-size:88%", fall , - , Win , 10-5 , align=left , Elverine Jiménez , style="font-size:88%", fall , - ! style=background:white colspan=8 , , - , Loss , 9-5 , align=left , Mimi Hristova , style="font-size:88%", fall , style="font-size:88%" rowspan=4, September 19, 2013 , style="font-size:88%" rowspan=4, 2013 World Championship , style="text-align:left;font-size:88%;" rowspan=4,

, - , Loss , 9-4 , align=left ,

, style="font-size:88%", 6-7 , - , Win , 9-3 , align=left , Phạm Thị Huệ , style="font-size:88%", fall , - , Win , 8-3 , align=left , Han Kum-ok , style="font-size:88%", fall , - ! style=background:white colspan=8 , , - , Loss , 7-3 , align=left ,

, style="font-size:88%", fall , style="font-size:88%" rowspan=4, September 28, 2012 , style="font-size:88%" rowspan=4, 2012 World Championship , style="text-align:left;font-size:88%;" rowspan=4,

Strathcona County Strathcona County is a specialized municipality in the Edmonton Metropolitan Region within Alberta, Canada between Edmonton and Elk Island National Park. It forms part of Census Division No. 11. Strathcona County is both urban and rural in ...

Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...

, - , Win , 7-2 , align=left , Brittanee Laverdure , style="font-size:88%", 5-0, 4-2 , - , Win , 6-2 , align=left ,

Maria Prevolaraki Maria Prevolaraki ( el, Μαρία Πρεβολαράκη; born 21 December 1991 in Athens) is a Greek freestyle wrestler. She competed in the freestyle 55 kg event at the 2012 Summer Olympics and was eliminated by Yuliya Ratkevich in the 1/8 ...

, style="font-size:88%", 3-0, 2-0 , - , Win , 5-2 , align=left , Nadzeya Mikhalkova , style="font-size:88%", fall , - ! style=background:white colspan=8 , , - , Loss , 4-2 , align=left , Ida-Theres Nerell , style="font-size:88%", fall , style="font-size:88%" rowspan=6, September 15, 2011 , style="font-size:88%" rowspan=6, 2011 World Championship , style="text-align:left;font-size:88%;" rowspan=6,

Istanbul Istanbul ( , ; tr, İstanbul ), formerly known as Constantinople ( grc-gre, Κωνσταντινούπολις; la, Constantinopolis), is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, serving as the country's economic, ...

, - , Win , 4-1 , align=left , Alma Valencia , style="font-size:88%", 5-0, 4-0 , - , Win , 3-1 , align=left , Emriye Musta , style="font-size:88%", 6-2, 6-2 , - , Loss , 2-1 , align=left ,

, style="font-size:88%", fall , - , Win , 2–0 , align=left , Valya Trandeva , style="font-size:88%", fall , - , Win , 1–0 , align=left , Aiyim Abdildina , style="font-size:88%", 6-0, 5-2

References

External links

* * * * *
Helen Maroulis Fan Site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Maroulis, Helen American female sport wrestlers American people of Greek descent 1991 births Living people Wrestlers at the 2011 Pan American Games Pan American Games gold medalists for the United States American sportswomen World Wrestling Championships medalists Wrestlers at the 2016 Summer Olympics Olympic gold medalists for the United States in wrestling Medalists at the 2016 Summer Olympics Pan American Games medalists in wrestling Sportspeople from Rockville, Maryland Medalists at the 2011 Pan American Games Wrestlers at the 2020 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 2020 Summer Olympics Olympic bronze medalists for the United States in wrestling 21st-century American women 20th-century American women