Emily Shilson selected as USA Wrestling Athlete of the Week
by Taylor Miller, USA Wrestling
Photo by Kadir Caliskan, United World Wrestling.
Emily Shilson (Maple Grove, Minn./ Twin Cities RTC/Titan Mercury WC) has been selected as USA Wrestling Athlete of the Week on Nov. 9, 2021.
Shilson represented the United States at the U23 World Championships last week in Serbia, competing at 50 kg in women’s freestyle. Going 4-0 in the tournament with two wins by pin, Shilson became the first U.S. woman to win gold at U23 Worlds.
She began the tournament with a technical fall over Germany’s Lisa Ersel, followed by a pin against multiple-time age-group World medalist Stefania Priceputu of Romania. In the semifinals, Shilson earned a win by forfeit over Sarra Hamdi from Tunisia. For gold, the American, despite giving up an early lead, put India’s Shivani Pawar to her back for a first-period fall.
It marks Shilson’s second World title of the year as she also claimed gold at the Junior World Championships in Russia in August. In addition to her 2021 World titles, the Minnesota native becomes the first wrestler on the planet to win every current UWW age-group World-level event, including a Cadet World gold and Youth Olympic Games gold medal, which she won in 2018.
Each week USA Wrestling will select an Athlete of the Week based upon performance within wrestling for that week. The selection committee will consider any level of wrestling from youth programs through the senior level.
To nominate a wrestler for this honor please send the athlete's name, wrestling program, weekly accomplishments and career accolades to USA Wrestling Manager of Communications and Social Media Taylor Miller at tmiller@usawrestling.org.