Helen Maroulis
Helen Maroulis Wrestling
MAIN ACHIEVEMENTS
College:
- 1st Place WCWA National Championships (2010, 2011, 2013, 2014)
Freestyle (Junior):
- 1st Place FILA Junior Nationals (2009, 2010)
- 1st Place FILA Junior World Team Trials (2008)
- 1st Place FILA Cadet Nationals (2007)
- 2nd Place World Championships (2011)
- 3rd Place World Championships (2008, 2010)
Freestyle:
U.S. Open Outstanding Wrestler Award (2012, 2014, 2015)
- 1st Place Summer Olympics (2016)
- 1st Place Summer Olympics Trials - Mongolia (2016)
- 1st Place UWW World Wrestling Championships (2015, 2017)
- 1st Place PASO Pan American Games (2011)
- 1st Place US World Team Trials (2011, 2015)
- 1st Place US Open (2012, 2014, 2015)
- 1st Place World Cup (2015)
- 1st Place Cerro Pelado International - Cuba (2014, 2015)
- 1st Place Dave Schultz Memorial International (2013, 2014, 2015)
- 1st Place UWW Golden Grand Prix Finals (2015)
- 2nd Place US Olympic Team Trials (2012)
- 2nd Place US World Team Trials (2010)
- 2nd Place US Open (2010)
- 2nd Place Dave Schultz Memorial International (2010, 2012)
- 2nd Place UWW World Wrestling Championships (2012)
- 3rd Place UWW World Wrestling Championships (2014)
- 3rd Place UWW Pan Wrestling Championships (2009)
- 3rd Place Dave Schultz Memorial International (2009)
- 3rd Place US World Team Trials (2009)
- 7th Place UWW World Wrestling Championships (2013)
Weight:
- 53kg (117 lbs)
- 55kg (121 lbs)
Teams:
- Magruder High School
- Missouri Baptist University
- Simon Fraser University (Canada)
Helen Maroulis Biography
Helen Maroulis was born on September 19, 1991, in Rockville, Maryland, U.S., daughter of John and Paula Maroulis.
In an interview to NBC's Rio Olympics site back in 2016, Helen explained how wrestling appeared in her life. In her own words: "I started wrestling when I was 7 years old. My little brother just joined the team and didn't have a partner, and my mom didn't want to make him quit. So she just said, 'Helen take off your shoes, jump in there and be a dummy.' So after two weeks of all this hard training, I went to my parents and said, 'This isn't fair. I'm doing what the boys are doing, but they get to compete and I don't.' So my dad made a bet with me that if I won my first match, I could continue wrestling. That was the only match I won all year."
Although drawn to wrestling from the get-go, Helen's parents were not convinced wrestling was the right choice for their daughter, making an effort to include her in various other activities prior to and during Maroulis' early days in the sport. Activities such as gymnastics, dance classes, and art camp.
During Helen's early competition days, particularly in high school, she wrestled mostly against males, which was not only physically demanding but also socially challenging. According to the Maryland Commission for Women, in the city's 2017 Hall Of Fame induction text: “in her [Maroulis] high school wrestling career, some opposing coaches would forfeit the competition to Helen rather than send out their wrestler (...) Competing against males in a male-dominated sport was not easy, but her passion for the sport and her thirst for knowledge propelled her to continue. She helped change the landscape of wrestling in Maryland. Eventually, her determination and grit helped transform the attitudes of many coaches toward female wrestlers. As a high school freshman, Helen was the first female to place in the Montgomery Region 3A/4A West, and the Maryland State Wrestling Tournaments. At one tournament, she made such an impression on the coaches that she was awarded the Outstanding Wrestler award even though she placed only third in the competition. She finished her three-year high school career at Magruder with a record of 99 – 26.”
After studying and wrestling for the Magruder High School for three years, Helen moved to Michigan during her senior year, working with the Marquette Senior High School, where she had access to the U.S. Olympic Education Center - located at the campus of Northern Michigan University - a partnership with National Governing Body groups like USA Wrestling.
Over the years that followed, Maroulis became one of the most dominant female wrestlers the sport had seen. She captured world championships in 2015 and 2017 without surrendering a single point — a combined 87-0 in nine matches. During this process, Helen also became the first U.S. female wrestler to take Olympic gold, beating arguably the greatest of all time (Saori Yoshida) in the final in the Rio Summer Olympics. Furthermore, Maroulis compiled a 78-1 record over a three-year stretch while competing at three different weight classes.
On January 10, 2018, Maroulis competed in New Delhi, India, at the Haryana Hammers - an Indian Pro Wrestling League. In the event, while wrestling with Tunisian grappler Marwa Amri, Helen collided heads with her opponent. She suffered two traumatic brain injuries from the accident, leading to post-traumatic stress disorder and psychiatric help, in addition to thumb and shoulder surgeries. All injuries took several months to recover from.
Helen Maroulis Low Single