2024 USA Wrestling Women’s Freestyle Awards: Sarah Hildebrandt (Wrestler), Clarissa Chun & Sara McMann (Coaches)

USA Wrestling announced its 2024 Athlete and Coach of the Year award winners during the CLAW U.S. Open last week. We will post the winners of these awards this week, one day for each Olympic discipline. We started Wednesday with our Greco-Roman award winners, and today we post the women’s freestyle award winners, with men’s freestyle coming on Friday.

Sarah Hildebrandt named 2024 USA Wrestling Women’s Wrestler of the Year

Sarah Hildebrandt (Colorado Springs, Colo./New York AC/USOPTC) has been named the 2024 Women's Wrestler of the Year by USA Wrestling. It is the first time that Hildebrandt has won this award.

Hildebrandt was the 2024 Olympic gold medalist at 50 kg in Paris, France in August. Hildebrandt defeated Yusneylis Guzman Lopez of Cuba in the gold-medal match, 3-0.

Hildebrandt opened the Olympic Games with a 10-0 technical fall over Ibtissem Doudou of Algeria. In the quarterfinals, Hildebrandt stoppe Ziqi Feng of China, 7-4. Her semifinal victory was over Otgonjargal Dolgorjav of Mongolia, 5-0. Hildebrandt avenged a loss to Dolgorjav in the 2023 World Championships.

Hildebrandt qualified for her second Olympic Games with a two-match sweep over Audrey Jimenez in the best-of-three championship series at the U.S. Olympic Team Trials at Penn State in April. Hildebrandt won both of the matches by 10-0 technical falls.

Internationally, Hildebrandt won a silver medal at the Poland Open in June in a tune-up event for the Paris Games.

Hildebrandt won two career Olympic medals, with a bronze medal at 50 kg at the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan to go along with her gold in Paris. She is also a four-time Senior World medalist, winning World silver medals in 2018 and 2021 and World bronze medals in 2022 and 2023. Hildebrandt won a gold medal at the 2019 Pan American Games and was a seven-time Senior Pan American Championships gold medalist. She was a U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Training Center resident athlete for many years.

In addition to winning numerous medals at international events across the world, Hildebrandt was also a three-time age-group World Team member for USA Wrestling.

She was a two-time WCWA national champion (2014 and 2015) and four-time WCWA finalist for King University. She was a leader on two WCWA national champion teams at King (2014 and 2015). A native of Granger, Ind., Hildebrandt competed on the boys wrestling team at Penn High School.

Hildebrandt has retired from competition, and was recently hired as an Assistant National Women’s Coach for USA Wrestling.

PAST WOMEN'S WRESTLER OF THE YEAR AWARD WINNERS

2024 – Sarah Hildebrandt, Colorado Springs, Colo., New York AC, USOPTC

2023 – Amit Elor, Colorado Springs, Colo., Titan Mercury WC, New York City RTC

2022 – Amit Elor, Walnut Creek, Calif.,Titan Mercury WC, New York City RTC

2021 — Tamyra Mensah-Stock, Colorado Springs, Colo., Titan Mercury WC

2020 — No award (COVID-19)

2019 — Tamyra Mensah-Stock, Colorado Springs, Colo., Titan Mercury WC

2018 — Sarah Hildebrandt, Colorado Springs, Colo., New York AC/OTC

2017 — Tamyra Mensah-Stock, Colorado Springs, Colo., Titan Mercury WC

2016 — Helen Maroulis, New York, N.Y., Sunkist Kids

2015 — Adeline Gray, Colorado Springs, Colo., New York AC

2014 — Adeline Gray, Colorado Springs, Colo., New York AC

2013 — Alyssa Lampe, Colorado Springs, Colo., Sunkist Kids

2012 — Clarissa Chun, Colorado Springs, Colo., Sunkist Kids

2011 — Ali Bernard, New Ulm, Minn., Gator WC

2010 — Elena Pirozhkova, Colorado Springs, Colo., Gator WC

2009 — Deanna Rix, Colorado Springs, Colo., New York AC

2008 — Randi Miller, Colorado Springs, Colo., Gator WC

2007 — Kristie Marano, Colorado Springs, Colo., New York AC

2006 — Kristie Marano, Colorado Springs, Colo., New York AC

2005 — Iris Smith, Colorado Springs, Colo. U.S. Army

2004 — Sara McMann, Lock Haven, Pa., Sunkist Kids

2003 — Patricia Miranda, Colorado Springs, Colo., Dave Schultz WC

2002 — Kristie Marano, Albany, N.Y., ATWA

2001 — Toccara Montgomery, Cleveland, Ohio, Sunkist Kids

2000 — Kristie Marano, Albany, N.Y., ATWA

1999 — Tricia Saunders, Phoenix, Ariz., Sunkist Kids

1998 — Kristie Stenglein, Albany, N.Y., ATWA

1997 — Sandra Bacher, San Jose, Calif., Dave Schultz WC

1996 — Tricia Saunders, Phoenix, Ariz., Sunkist Kids

1995 — Vickie Zummo, Hamburg, N.J., New York AC

1994 — Shannon Williams, Ontario, Calif., Sunkist Kids

1993 — Tricia Saunders, Phoenix, Ariz., Sunkist Kids

Clarissa Chun and Sara McMann named 2024 USA Wrestling Women’s Coaches of the Year

Clarissa Chun (Iowa City, Iowa/ Iowa Women’s WC) and Sara McMann (Antelope, Calif.) have been named co-winners of the 2024 Women’s Coach of the Year by USA Wrestling.

It is the second time that Chun has received this award, also being honored in 2023. It is the first time that McMann has received the award.

Chun is the head coach of the University of Iowa’s varsity women’s wrestling program. Iowa is the first NCAA Div. I Power Conference program to add women’s wrestling.

During the 2023-24 college season, in its first official year as a varsity, Iowa won the National Collegiate Women’s Wrestling Championships (NCWWC), which is the annual national championships for varsity teams in the NCAA. Iowa came from behind in the finals round to edge North Central College for the team title.  The Hawkeyes finished the dual meet season undefeated.

Chun was named NCWWC Coach of the Year in 2024. She was also presented with the 2024 Trailblazer Award from the National Wrestling Hall of Fame. Chun was named USA Today’s Iowa Woman of the Year, as well.

She is also coach of the Iowa Women’s WC, which competes in major national and international events on the USA Wrestling circuit. Two of her athletes were Senior World bronze medalists in Tirana, Albania in October, Macey Kilty at 65 kg and Kylie Welker at 72 kg. Kilty and Welker were also both medalists at the 2024 U23 World Championships in Tirana the week before, with Welker winning gold and Kilty claiming silver. At the U20 World Championships in Pontevedra, Spain in September, Iowa wrestler Naomi Simon won a bronze medal at 76 kg. Numerous athletes from the Iowa Women’s WC claimed All-American honors at USA Wrestling’s Senior and age-group national events.

Prior to Iowa, Chun served as an Assistant National Women’s Coach for USA Wrestling, helping coach the Women’s National Team from 2017-2021. As part of Terry Steiner’s National Women’s Coaching staff, Chun helped lead the USA to 17 Senior World medals and four Olympic medals.

As an athlete, Chun was one of the best women’s freestyle wrestlers in history and has been inducted into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame. She won a bronze medal at the 2012 Olympic Games in London, England, and also placed fifth at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, China. She was a 2008 Senior World champion, and also competed on four other U.S. Senior World Teams.

Chun competed on the trailblazing Missouri Valley College women’s varsity team, one of the first women’s teams in college history. After college, she became a U.S. Olympic Training Center resident athlete. A native of Honolulu, Hawaii, she was the first state high school champion in women’s wrestling in Hawaii history, competing for Roosevelt High School.

McMann served as the personal coach for Amit Elor in 2024. Elor won the U.S. Olympic Team Trials at 68 kg and went on to win the gold medal at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, France. McMann was a coach at the training camps in preparation for the Olympic Games, working with Elor and the other members of the U.S. Olympic Team in women’s freestyle.

In 2023, McMann served as a coach for the U.S. U20 Women’s World Team, which competed in Amman, Jordan. The U.S. women won five medals, led by 2023 U23 World champion Amit Elor, to finish third in the team standings.

McMann is also the wrestling coach for Precision Jiu Jitsu Academy, a martial arts gym in Citrus Heights, Calif., which specializes in teaching the highest levels of Jiu Jitsu, Muay Thai, and Wrestling.

McMann was the first U.S. women’s freestyle wrestler to reach the finals of the Olympic Games, when she won a silver medal at 62 kg at the 2004 Olympics in Athens, Greece. This was the first Olympics in which women’s wrestling was on the Olympic program, and she was on the historic four-athlete 2004 U.S. Olympic Team in women’s wrestling.

McMann won three World Championship medals for Team USA with a silver medal at the 2003 World Championships and bronze medals in 2005 and 2007. She made seven Senior World Teams for the United States. McMann was a two-time Pan American Games champion (2003, 2007) and captured six U.S. Open titles. For a number of years, McMann was a U.S. Olympic Training Center resident athlete.

McMann competed on the NCAA Div. I men’s team at Lock Haven. She started her college career on the women’s team at the University of Minnesota Morris. She was a member of the boys wrestling team at McDowell High School in North Carolina.

After her wrestling career, McMann also had a very successful career as a Mixed Marial Arts athlete. She competed in a title fight in UFC 170 against Ronda Rousey in 2014 and had a 14-7 professional record in MMA.

Both Chun and McMann are Distinguished Members of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame, as both were inducted into the Class of 2022.

PAST WOMEN'S COACH OF THE YEAR AWARD WINNERS

2024 - Clarissa Chun, Iowa City, Iowa, Iowa Women’s WC and Sara McMann, Antelope, Calif.

2023 – Clarissa Chun, Iowa City, Iowa, Iowa Women’s WC

2022 – Nate Engel, Corvallis, Ore., Beaver Dam RTC

2021 – Nate Engel, Corvallis, Ore., Beaver Dam RTC

2020 - No award (COVID-19)

2019 - Vladislav "Izzy" Izboinikov, Colorado Springs, Colo., Titan Mercury WC

2018 - Troy Steiner, Fresno, Calif., Valley RTC

2017 – John Smith, Stillwater, Okla. and Cary Kolat, Buies Creek, N.C.

2016 – Valentin Kalika, New York, N.Y., Titan Mercury WC

2015 – Aaron Sieracki, Colorado Springs, Colo., U.S. Army WCAP

2014 – Afsoon Johnston, San Diego, Calif.

2013 – Archie Randall, Mustang, Okla., OKCU Gator Women’s RTC

2012 – Vladislav “Izzy” Izboinikov, Colorado Springs, Colo., USA Wrestling

2011 – Kevin Black, River Falls, Wis., New York AC

2010 – Keith Wilson, Colorado Springs, Colo., Sunkist Kids

2009 – Kevin Black, River Falls, Wis., New York AC

2008 - Tadaaki Hatta, Elyria, Ohio, New York AC

2007 - Troy Steiner, Corvallis, Ore.

2006 - Joe Corso, Metairie, La., Gator WC

2005 - Bill Scherr, Glenview, Ill., Sunkist Kids

2004 - Tricia Saunders, Phoenix, Ariz., Sunkist Kids

2003 - Townsend Saunders, Phoenix, Ariz., Sunkist Kids

2002 - Joe Corso, Des Moines, Iowa, Sunkist Kids