Maroulis finds way to fourth World title, Welker claims back-to-back bronze at World Championships

ZAGREB, Croatia – The latest entry in the Helen Maroulis saga saw the American legend return to the top of the World podium, with a storybook ending befitting an all-time champion.

After going down by a point in the second period of the 57 kg final to North Korea’s Il Sim Son, Maroulis simply would not be denied. She powered through an inside trip to score the match winning takedown with six seconds left on the clock. Maroulis held on in those final moments for a 3-2 win and her fourth World title.

Maroulis finished her time in Zagreb with four impressive victories, three of which came by pin. She did not surrender a single match point until the finals. It was a vintage Maroulis performance à la 2015.

The Maryland native is now tied with trailblazer Tricia Saunders for second place on the all-time list of World gold medals won by an American in women’s freestyle at four. Only Adeline Gray, who owns six, has more. In fact, only seven individuals in USA Wrestling history have won at least four World titles—Gray (6), Saunders (4) and Maroulis (4) in women’s freestyle, plus Jordan Burroughs (6), John Smith (4), Kyle Dake (4) and Kyle Snyder (4) in men’s freestyle. Snyder, who is also from Maryland, achieved the feat yesterday in Zagreb.

With the added gold in Zagreb, Maroulis has now collected eight medals at the Senior World Championships—four gold, two silver and three bronze. She also owns a U.S. record three Olympic medals—gold from the 2016 Rio Games and bronze at both the 2020 Tokyo Games and 2024 Paris Games. She was the first U.S. woman to win an Olympic gold medal in wrestling, and the first to win multiple Olympic medals.

Joining in on the medal parade was firecracker Kylie Welker, who bullied her way to the 76 kg bronze medal with a decisive 6-2 win over five-time age-group World medalist and reigning European champion Anastasiya Alpyeyeva of Ukraine. Welker came out firing, with a snatch single leg and gutwrench to open up a four-point lead in the first 36 seconds. Alpyeyeva didn’t have the offense to mount a credible comeback. This was a rematch of last year’s U23 World final, also won by Welker.

The win for Welker cemented back-to-back medals for her at the Senior World Championships. She is a four-time age-group World medalist, with titles at the U20 and U23 levels. Expect Welker to be one of the Team USA staples in the leadup to the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028.

Speaking of staples, two-time World medalist Macey Kilty earned another top five finish at the Senior Worlds, further proving her legitimacy in the 65 kg weight class. Kilty finished just outside the medal stand after taking a tough 4-2 defeat in the bronze medal contest against Mongolia’s Enkhjin Tuvshinjargal. Earlier in the day, Kilty pinned 2024 Olympic bronze medalist Grace Bullen of Norway in a highlight moment for the U.S. women’s team.

At the conclusion of group two, the U.S. women are in third place in the team race with 52 points. Japan holds the lead with 87 team points, and surprise nation North Korea sits tight in second with 70 team points. Tomorrow morning’s repechage round will go a long way in deciding which three nations will make the final team podium.

Earlier in the day, Kennedy Blades was pulled into the women’s freestyle repechage at 68 kg, while Felicity Taylor, Adaugo Nwachukwu and Alexandria Glaude missed out on the repechage at 53 kg, 62 kg and 68 kg. Blades, Nwachukwu and Glaude all made the quarterfinals before taking a loss.

Blades, a 2024 Olympic silver medalist, awaits the winner the first-round repechage bout between two-time U23 World medalist Manola Skobelska of Ukraine and Noémi Szabados of Hungary. One win pushes Blades into the Thursday evening bronze medal round.

For a complete match-by-match breakdown of the evening session for Team USA in Zagreb, browse our day five match notes.

The tournament resumes at 10:30 a.m. local time on Wednesday with the women’s freestyle group three (53-62-68-72 kg) repechage, plus Greco-Roman group one (55-77-82-130 kg) preliminary rounds. Jayden Raney, Kamal Bey, Beka Melelashvili and Cohlton Schultz take the mats for the first time tomorrow morning for Team USA. Zagreb, Croatia, is in the GMT +2 time zone, which is six hours ahead of U.S. Eastern Time.

The Senior World Championships are streaming live on FloWrestling.com to the U.S. market. Brackets and updated results are available on UWW Arena.

USA Wrestling will provide regular updates on TheMat.com and its social media platforms throughout the event.