American Sarah Hildebrandt became just the fourth woman in U.S. history to win an Olympic gold medal in wrestling on Wednesday in Paris.
PARIS, France, August 7, 2024 – We all see the battle on the mat. Two wrestlers vying for championships one on one.
Seldom do we see the battle and the challenge off the mat to make weight. Fans who have followed wrestling for years have seen a wrestle miss weight and see their tournament come to end.
It can be extremely challenging at world class events to make weight. Wrestlers can wrestle multiple matches late into the night and are expected to be on weight the next morning for weigh-in.
Seldom does missing weight happen on the largest stage but it did on Wednesday. Wrestler Vinesh Phogat, India’s first-ever finalist in wrestling, missed her weight on the morning weigh-in at 50 kilograms (110.2 pounds) and was eliminated from the tournament.
Vinesh was supposed to wrestle American Sarah Hildenbrandt in Wednesday’s gold medal freestyle match. Instead, Vinesh’s spot in the final went to Cuba’s Yusneylis Guzman Lopez, who lost to Vinesh in Tuesday’s semifinal.
For Hildebrandt, it was a crazy morning. Some thought she would win by forfeit and she began to receive congratulatory texts. Then, she learned she would face Lopez and refocused.
Hildebrandt became the second U.S. women’s freestyle wrestler to win an Olympic gold medal in Paris, joining her teammate Amit Elor, who captured the gold medal at 68 kg on Tuesday night. This is the first time that Team USA has won multiple Olympic gold medals in women’s wrestling in the same Olympic Games since the sport was added in Athens in 2004.
“I don’t even know. I can’t put words to it. It’s like I’ve dreamt of this moment for so long,” Hildebrandt said. “And then I feel like my mind and body are just like not computing everything. Especially with the chaotic morning I had with the change of opponents and stuff. So I think all of it has been, it’s just crazy. Mostly I just feel full of gratitude and I should go squeeze my family.”
She is now the fourth U.S. woman to win an Olympic gold medal in wrestling, joining Helen Maroulis (2016), Elor and Tamyra Mensah Stock (68 kg in 2020).
In addition to her two Olympic medals, Hildebrandt also has won two silver medals and two bronze medals at the world championships.
Hildebrandt, the No. 6 seed, opened with an impressive 10-0 technical fall over four-time African bronze medalist Ibtissem Doudou of Algeria in her opening match on Tuesday. In the quarterfinals, Hildebrandt was in command in a 7-4 victory over 2023 world bronze medalist Ziqi Feng of China. In the semifinals, Hildebrandt defeated Otgonjargal Dolgorjav of Mongolia, 5-0, avenging a loss to Dolgorjav in the semifinals of the 2023 world championships.
Hildebrandt was scheduled to face Vinesh of India in the gold-medal finals. Vinesh knocked off the No. 1 seed, Olympic and world champion Yui Susaki of Japan in the opening round and powered through two other opponents to become the first woman from India to reach an Olympic wrestling final.
But she struggled to make weight on Wednesday morning, according to SportStar, an Indian sports publication.
According to SportStar, the athlete, her coaches, and her support staff spent a sleepless night without food or water to make the cut. When everything failed, they resorted to extreme measures like cutting her hair, but their efforts did not yield the desired results.
According to the published report, she was 100 grams overweight or 0.2 pounds.
According to United World Wrestling rules, Vinesh was eliminated from the tournament.
“I was preparing for chaos, but that was not on my bingo card of chaos,” Hildebrandt said. ”I was up early. I had to get some weight off, not very much. Just get a little sweat in this morning. We get the news that she didn’t make weight. And then it was just, you know, is it a forfeit? Does somebody step in? We were under the impression that it was a forfeit.
“There was a lot of celebrating. It was very strange. I mean family was calling I’m getting text messages,” she said. “It was so weird I had to just shift into this totally back into this focused mindset.”
Hildebrandt is no stranger to cutting weight either. She shared her empathy for her Indian opponent.
“As a big weight cutter myself, I feel for her, you know, like she had an amazing day yesterday, did an insane feat,” she said. “My heart goes out to her. I think she’s an amazing competitor, an amazing wrestler in person. And it sucks, but also at the end of the day, this is definitely part of the job.”
2022 world champion Dom Parrish of the USA was pulled back into repechage at 53 kg in women’s freestyle when two-time world champion Akari Fujinami of Japan won her semifinal match over Qianyu Pang of China.
Fujinami pinned Parrish in the first round on Wednesday. Parrish will wrestle Khulan Batkhuyag of Mongolia in repechage on Thursday morning. If Parrish wins that repechage match, she will qualify for a bronze-medal match against Pang.
The U.S. Greco-Roman team finished up on Wednesday morning, when Payton Jacobson lost his opening match at 87 kg and was not eligible for repechage.
The USA, which qualified four athletes for the Olympic Games Paris 2024, had an 0-5 record in their Greco-Roman matches.
Joe Rau placed ninth at 97 kg, the top finish among the four U.S. Olympians. The other placements were Kamal Bey (11th at 77 kg) and Adam Coon (12th at 130 kg). Jacobson’s placement will be announced on Thursday, as Greco-Roman finishes up in Paris.
Content from USA Wrestling used to compile this report
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After winning the 2024 U.S. Olympic Trials in April, Hildebrandt touched on the challenges of making weight.
