Adeline Gray selected as USA Wrestling Athlete of the Week
by Taylor Miller, USA Wrestling
Photo by Kadir Caliskan, United World Wrestling.
Adeline Gray (Colorado Springs, Colo./USOPTC/Beaver Dam RTC/New York AC) has been selected as USA Wrestling Athlete of the Week on Oct. 15, 2021.
Gray made history last week in Oslo, Norway, becoming the first wrestler in U.S. history to win six gold medals at the World championships. This isn’t the first time she’s made history of this nature. In 2019, Gray became the first wrestler to win five World titles.
Competing at 76 kg, Gray pinned all four of her opponents en route to the crown. She started off with a victory over 2018 U23 World silver medalist Aysegul Ozbege of Turkey in 1:16, followed by a win against Kiran Kiran from India in 2:32. In the semifinals, Gray downed Olympian Samar Hamza of Egypt in the second period at the 3:59-mark.
For gold, the American took on multiple-time World medalist Epp Mae from Estonia. The two traded points throughout the match but in the final seconds, Gray took the lead and secured the fall with two seconds left.
The win comes on the heels of a silver-medal performance at the Tokyo Olympics earlier this summer.
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.