Rockville’s Helen Maroulis on Thursday beat the woman many consider the best wrestler of all time to win gold in the 53kg (117 pounds) freestyle weight class.
Maroulis, 24, is the first U.S. woman to win an Olympic gold medal in wrestling.
Her opponent, Japan’s Saori Yoshida, is a 13-time world champion and was a three-time defending gold medalist. It was only Yoshida’s third loss in international competition since 1998. Maroulis won the match, 4-1.
The medal ceremony was an emotional moment for both:
Maroulis, who has been living and training in California since last year, went to Magruder High School.
This 2005 story from The Gazette introduces Maroulis when she was a 14-year-old freshman wrestling for the school’s team and one of the few girls wrestling against boys in the county. She was undefeated against Montgomery County competition at the time.
Rockville’s Jack Conger returned to the U.S. Friday morning, according to media reports, after he and another U.S. swimmer were taken off a plane about to leave Brazil Wednesday night amid a police probe into the events of early Sunday morning.
The robbery that fellow swimmer Ryan Lochte claimed he, Conger and two others were a victim of turned out to be a confrontation at a gas station after at least one of the swimmers vandalized the gas station’s bathroom. The four had been at a party the night before.
Brazilian police said Thursday a security guard at the gas station pulled his gun on the group and the swimmers gave him $20 to cover the damages to the bathroom. Police also said Conger and teammate Gunnar Bentz told them the robbery story was fabricated.
Brazilian authorities said it’s unlikely criminal charges will be sought against Lochte or the other swimmers.
On Thursday night, Conger took to Twitter, writing “Free Ryan Lochte.”
