How Helen Maroulis became most decorated Olympic US female wrestler

PARIS — Helen Maroulis thought about leaving her shoes on the mat Friday, but she never got the sign she was waiting for that her wrestling career is definitely over.

“Yesterday I was like, ‘I’m leaving these damn shoes. I don’t care what happens, I’m throwing these things. I am leaving them on the mat,’ ‘ Maroulis said. ‘And then I just was like, ‘Well, God, I didn’t have a clear answer,’ and I was like, ‘I don’t know.’ ‘

Maroulis became the most-decorated female wrestler in U.S. Olympic history Friday, winning her third medal when she pinned Canada’s Hannah Taylor 24 seconds into their bronze-medal match at 57 kilograms.

Maroulis, 32, won gold in 2016 (at 53 kg) when she stunned Japan’s three-time gold-medalist Saori Yoshia, and bronze in 2020 (at 57 kg) when she barely made it to the games after dealing with the aftereffects of multiple concussions.

She said she came into these Olympics expecting to win another gold, and was disappointed with her semifinal loss Thursday to Japan’s Tsugumi Sakurai, the eventual gold-medal winner.

2024 Olympic medals: Who is leading the medal count? Follow along as we track the medals for every sport.

On Friday, Maroulis said she ‘balled my eyes out while I was cutting weight’ before realizing this was maybe how her career was supposed to end.

‘This time was probably the first time that I’ve really experienced heartbreak in that semifinals,’ she said. ‘I’ve never experienced heartbreak at the Olympics before, which is really, it’s a gift, but I think it’s also been a gift to experience this cause if I’m going to go into coaching, I think I’ll be able to empathize or understand that, whereas before I kind of, I didn’t. So this was one of the hardest things in sport to have to pull myself up from, but that means I put my whole heart and body and everything into it, so I don’t regret it.’

Maroulis said she will pray about her future in the weeks and months ahead and eventually will be led to a clear answer.

The last time she did that, before the 2021 Tokyo Games, she said she ‘felt like God said, ‘Hey, it’s whatever you want. This is the cherry on top if you want to keep going.’ ‘

‘And I was like, ‘Well, I work so hard to get healthy. Why would I stop now? Let me go,’ ‘ she said. ‘This time around, I’ve been praying a lot and I still don’t know yet, but there’s some other things that I want in life. I think there’s some things I need to do to take care of myself and my body, and it’s like I really love this sport. I love it. And I think I’m just, it’s not that I’m holding on because of anything competitively or accolade. It’s like I really do just love what I get to do and the way that I experienced God through that has just been really beautiful for me, but I know it’s going to come to an end at some point.’

Maroulis apologized to reporters as she got choked up when she talked, but said if this is the end of her career she’s leaving fulfilled.

‘It’s a dream,’ she said. ‘It’s so crazy. I’m so grateful. This is just a dream. I look back on my career and I’m like, I never would’ve thought as a young girl I could achieve this.’

Contact Dave Birkett at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on X and Instagram at @davebirkett.

The USA TODAY app gets you to the heart of the news — fast. Download for award-winning coverage, crosswords, audio storytelling, the eNewspaper and more.