Rockville native returns home with Olympic gold
Helen Maroulis, 24, first American woman to win gold in wrestling
An Olympic gold medalist is at home in Maryland with a special message for her fans. Helen Maroulis is the first American woman ever to win gold in wrestling. It's long been considered a man's sport.
Maroulis is hopeful her success will inspire others to break down barriers.
Maroulis grew up sandwiched between two brothers, which is how she got introduced to wrestling. She agreed to partner with her younger brother at the age of seven, and found that she flourished in the ring.
She is proof that drive and determination are worth their weight in gold. The 24-year-old Rockville native is back from Rio, where she earned America's first ever gold medal in women's freestyle wrestling, an event added to the Olympic Games in 2004.
"It even being added to the Olympics was the result of so many women pursuing the sport, knowing that there wasn't anything for them, that there wasn't a future, and they were fighting for that," Maroulis said.
Maroulis said she grew up wrestling mostly male competitors, who often underestimated her. But her skill earned her all of her accolades, and by the time she joined the team at Magruder High in Rockville, Maroulis said most of her male competitors forfeited rather than face her in the ring.
She said the pro circuit brought challenging female opponents and chauvinism.
"In the 90s, if you won the world championships as a female, you were given a toaster as a prize or a vacuum cleaner. It was bad. It was really bad," Maroulis said.
While Maroulis is thrilled with her gold medal win, she doesn't want that awesome moment on the podium to define her.
"I have this medal, and that represents that for the rest of my life, but I can't re-feel that, and so I have to find a way to feel joy day in and day out," Maroulis said.
She finds it in the ring, where she says wrestling makes her feel empowered even as she trained for the Olympics and counted every calorie, calibrated workouts and curtailed her social life.
"Yes there were a lot of sacrifices, but it wasn't a miserable time. I found a lot of joy in the process and that's what was able to sustain me," Maroulis said.
Maroulis said she plans to travel to Greece to unwind and take a brief break from training, but that once she returns to the states, she plans to start focusing on repeating her gold medal achievement in Tokyo in 2020.