Helen Maroulis is declared the winner of the women's 58 kg final at the 2017 Wrestling World Championships on Aug. 23, 2017 in Paris.
Helen Maroulis dominated like few others have, earning her second world title with an impressive 11-0 technical fall over Marwa Amri of Tunisia in the 58 kg. weight class on the third day of the 2017 UWW World Wrestling Championships in Paris, France.
Fellow American Becka Leathers earned bronze at 55 kg.
Maroulis, the reigning Olympic champion and the first American woman to win an Olympic gold medal in wrestling, came into the world championship ranked second, with Amri ranked third.
Maroulis scored five technical falls and never surrendered a point while winning a major title in her third different weight class in as many years. Maroulis won her 2015 world championship at 55 kg. and her Olympic title at 53 kg. She dropped to 53 for the Olympic Games because there is no 55 kg. competition.
Maroulis rolled into the finals without giving up a point. She opened with an 11-0 decision over Hanbit Kim of Korea, followed by a 10-0 win over Sweden’s Elin Nilsson. She knocked off Pan American silver medalist Yessica Oviedo Perez of the Dominican Republic 11-0 in the quarterfinals, and added a 10-0 technical fall over Canada’s Michelle Fazzari in the semifinals.
Leathers won the bronze medal at 55 kg., defeating Bulgaria’s Bilyana Dudova 4-2 after jumping out to a 4-0 lead in the opening period on a takedown and two-point exposure. Leathers, from Choctaw, Oklahoma, earned her first senior world medal to go along with a bronze from the 2015 junior worlds.
Leathers lost to Japan’s Haruna Okuno in quarterfinals, but scored a 13-2 technical fall over Italy’s Carola Raniero to storm her way into the bronze medal match.
Gary R. Blockus is a journalist from Allentown, Pennsylvania who has covered multiple Olympic Games. He is a freelance contributor to TeamUSA.org on behalf of Red Line Editorial, Inc.