Olympic wrestling champion Helen Maroulis can add one other gold medal to her resume after competing in her first Brazilian jiu-jitsu competitors.
The primary American lady to seize an Olympic gold medal in wrestling transitioned to grappling along with her debut on the IBJJF World Championships and he or she discovered instantaneous success. In simply her second match on the blue belt stage after coaching for the previous six weeks, Maroulis regarded like a season skilled after she hit a mounted guillotine choke for the victory.
Finally, Maroulis captured gold successful 5 matches in a row after first displaying curiosity in jiu-jitsu whereas touring to New York for a USA wrestling occasion and simply deciding to take a stab at a brand new sport.
“This expertise was superb,” Maroulis instructed IBJJF after her victory. “I already love jiu-jitsu, I fell in love with it fairly immediately. Clearly there’s a whole lot of similarities to wrestling however I like every little thing that’s additionally completely different about it. I used to be simply actually nervous as a result of I by no means even did one match in my life earlier than so I simply had no concept what to anticipate.
“It was a extremely nice coaching camp at Unity, I’m so grateful for all of the professors and coaches and teammates that helped there and simply that I used to be in a position to exit right here and compete right now and I like competing. So this was simply so enjoyable for me.”
Maroulis is essentially the most achieved ladies’s wrestler in U.S. historical past after successful gold in 2016 after which capturing bronze medals in each 2020 and 2024.
Whereas she hasn’t retired from wrestling, it seems Maroulis plans to proceed to compete in Brazilian jiu-jitsu competitions shifting ahead after getting her first style with one other gold medal victory.
“I like competing however wrestling could be very, very exhausting on the physique,” Maroulis stated. “Whereas with jiu-jitsu you see older folks not even competing however simply coming in and coaching on a regular basis and I need that. It’s like remedy for me. It’s an outlet. I believe actually wholesome for the thoughts, physique, soul to have that with jiu-jitsu is very nice.”
