Two months ago, Helen Maroulis thought she was done with wrestling after three Olympic medals, including the first gold for an American woman back in 2016.
Yet on Saturday, she dominated Amanda Martinez to make the team at 57kg for the World Championships.
“To be honest, I didn’t want to come back,” she said. “I was so at peace with it. I had moved on to jiu-jitsu. I love jiu-jitsu. I was like, oh, similar sport, but way less hard on the body. About eight weeks out, I decided to come back to wrestling. One day, God just told me to go back to Phoenix (to train). I went back, and it was like all of a sudden in a week, I just moved out of my place in New York and trained full-time.”
It’s Maroulis’ 15th career Olympic or world team dating to 2008. She is set to break the American record for worlds that she shares with Bruce Baumgartner by competing in a 12th edition in Croatia in September.
Maroulis, 33, is currently tied with Adeline Gray for the most combined Olympic and world medals for a U.S. female wrestler (10). She is also the lone U.S. female wrestler to win three Olympic medals, also taking bronze in Tokyo and Paris.
Maroulis, who briefly retired in 2019 due to concussions and post-traumatic stress disorder, said she overcame a lot of health obstacles, including a mast cell histamine issue, to get to Saturday’s Final X event.
“I was really questioning, should I be back?” she said. “But then everything comes together at the end.”
Maroulis is joined on the team for worlds by Paris Olympic silver medalists Kennedy Blades and Spencer Lee. They all swept best-of-three series at Saturday’s Final X.
Blades moved down from her Olympic weight of 76kg to 68kg and beat Brooklyn Hays to make her first senior world team at age 21.
Lee is going to his first senior worlds after sweeping Luke Lilledahl at 57kg. Lee is already a world champion at the U17 and U20 levels.
At 86kg, Zahid Valencia swept two-time Olympic 74kg bronze medalist Kyle Dake. It’s the first time that Dake, a two-time world champion each at 74kg and 79kg, has been beaten for a world team spot since 2017.
Neither of the Americans who won gold in Paris competed at Final X. Sarah Hildebrandt has retired, and Amit Elor missed the event for health reasons.
PJ Duke, who recently completed his high school career, became one of the youngest Americans to qualify for a senior world team.
2025 USA Wrestling Final X Results
Women’s Freestyle
50kg: Audrey Jimenez def. Erin Golston 10-2, 12-2
53kg: Felicity Taylor def. Brianna Gonzalez 2-1, 6-4
55kg: Cristelle Rodriguez def. Everest Leydecker 12-8, 8-5
57kg; Helen Maroulis def. Amanda Martinez pin, fall
59kg: Jacarra Winchester def. Abigail Nette 4-6, 9-7, 11-0
62kg: Adaugo Nwachukwu def. Kayla Miracle 14-8, 3-4, 8-4
65kg: Macey Kilty def. Aine Drury 10-0, 10-0
68kg: Kennedy Blades def. Brooklyn Hays 10-4, 5-2
72kg: Alexandria Glaude wins by forfeit (Amit Elor withdrew for health reasons)
76kg: Kylie Welker def. Dymond Guilford 2-1, 9-1
Men’s Freestyle
57kg: Spencer Lee def. Luke Lilledahl 7-2, 6-0
61kg: Vito Arujau vs. Jax Forrest on July 14 after Arujau received an injury delay.
65kg: Real Woods def. Joey McKenna 7-3, 5-4
70kg: PJ Duke def. Yianni Diakomihalis 0-10, 17-10, fall
74kg: David Carr def. Mitchell Mesenbrink 4-3, 4-4
79kg: Levi Haines def. Evan Wick 10-0, 6-1
86kg: Zahid Valencia def. Kyle Dake 5-3, 4-1
92kg: Trent Hidlay def. Joshua Barr 6-1, 3-2
97kg: Kyle Snyder def. Hayden Zillmer 8-0, 8-2
125kg: Wyatt Hendrickson def. Trent Hillger 10-0, 20-14
