“I’m trying to focus on moving forward. I don’t want to enter the Olympic Trials or the Olympic Games or enter anything unprepared.”
- Helen Maroulis
Maroulis focused on Olympic dream
20-year-old sets her sights on Olympic gold medal in women’s freestyle wrestling
By Jason Bryant Helen Maroulis started wrestling when she was seven. After that first season, she was forced out of the sport. “My parents made me quit because it wasn’t going to be an Olympic sport,” said Maroulis. “They didn’t want me to get attached to it. A couple months later, before the next season started, they announced it would be an Olympic sport in the 2004 Summer Games and my mom said I could sign up again.” “If this is an Olympic sport, why not go
for it, it’s the only one I’m the best at,” said Maroulis recalling her early years in the sport. Now, the 20-year-old is one of the favorites to represent the U.S. at the 2012 Olympic Games in London. A four- time member of the U.S. Junior World Team, Maroulis made her second senior- level World Team in 2011 and finished fifth at 55 kg/121 pounds. Her fifth place finish, while personally disappointing, was a big step from the first time she wrestled for the U.S. on a Senior-level World Team.
18 USA Wrestler
Helen Maroulis won a Junior World silver medal in 2011. Tony Rotundo photo. Let’s rewind to 2008.
Maroulis is a 16-year-old high school junior at Magruder High School in Rockville, Md. She finished sixth in the 4A/3A Maryland State Championship at 112 pounds against the boys, won her second USA Wrestling Junior National Championship and made her first Junior World Team. To say it was a busy year for the teen would be an understatement.
Maroulis would earn a bronze medal at the 2008 Junior World Championships in
Istanbul, Turkey, the same place she’d represent the U.S. on a senior World Team three years later. Then factor in FILA hosted a World Championship that same year for both the Olympic and non-Olympic weight classes in Tokyo. Maroulis would make the team at 51 kg/112.25 lbs. and finish eighth.
“I remember being nervous before my matches because I really couldn’t get confidence thinking I had all this experi- Continued on page 19
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