The record · The women who built it
The women who built the sport
Amateur wrestling, freestyle and folkstyle. The wrestlers below each did something first, or hold a record nobody else holds, and the page that says so is linked under every name.
By Joe Spisak, Pennsylvania state champion and 4x NCAA qualifier at Virginia · Published September 3, 2026
This is not a ranking. Ranking people against each other across fifty years and four rule sets would mean inventing a scale, and the scale would be the opinion, not the record. So the order here is time: what each wrestler did, and when it had never been done before. Each one sits in the era of the thing she did first, so a career that ran on past it is still listed where it started. A girl who wanted to wrestle in 1975 had to go to court. A girl who wanted to wrestle in 2026 has a state championship in 49 places, a college division, and an NCAA championship. Everything between those two sentences is on this page.
There are wrestlers missing. The site has 79 full profiles so far out of a roster of 130, each one written and checked twice before it is listed, so the names here will grow. If someone is missing whose first belongs on this list, send the clipping.
Before there was anywhere to wrestle
The 1970s and 1980s, when a girl who wanted to wrestle went to court or went home.
Tricia SaundersShe entered an AAU tournament in 1975 only after a federal court ruled she could, then in 1992 at Villeurbanne became the first American woman to win a senior World title, and in 2006 the first woman inducted into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame as a Distinguished Member.
The World Championships years, 1989 to 2003
The United States entered its first Women's World Championships in 1989 and had no Olympic Games to aim at until 2004.
- Kristie Marano
She wrestled ten World Championships and reached seven finals, winning World titles in 2000 and 2003, in the years when a World team was the highest a woman could go.
Clarissa ChunShe won the 98-pound final at Hawaii's 1998 tournament, the first sanctioned girls' state championship in the country, then won the 2008 World title, took bronze in London in 2012, and became the first head coach of Iowa's women's program.
The Olympic era, 2004 to 2016
Women's freestyle wrestling entered the Olympic program at Athens 2004 and the first American gold came twelve years later.
- Sara McMann
Her silver at 63 kg in Athens in 2004 made her the first American woman to reach an Olympic wrestling final.
Tela O'DonnellShe was on the first United States Olympic team in women's freestyle, named in Indianapolis in 2004, and placed sixth at 55 kg in Athens.
Michaela HutchisonIn February 2006 she won Alaska's 103-pound title against boys, the first girl in the country to win an all-boys high school state championship.
- Marcie Van Dusen
She wrestled the 2008 Games at 55 kg, and in January of that year she handed Saori Yoshida of Japan her first loss in years at the World Cup in Taiyuan.
Ali BernardJunior World titles in 2003 and 2005 made her the first American woman to win two, and she wrestled the 2008 and 2012 Games.
Victoria AnthonyHer fourth WCWA title in 2014 made her the first four-time college national champion in the sport, on the same night her Simon Fraser teammate Helen Maroulis became the second.
Helen MaroulisShe beat three-time Olympic champion Saori Yoshida in the Rio final in 2016 to become the first American woman to win Olympic wrestling gold, and she is the first to win three Olympic medals.
The sport now, 2017 to 2026
Three World titles in one year, four Olympic medals in one Games, and college wrestling arriving at the NCAA.
Adeline GrayHer sixth World title, at 76 kg in Oslo in 2021, is the most by any American wrestler of any style or gender.
Jacarra WinchesterHer 55 kg title at Nur-Sultan in 2019 was one of three American World golds that year, the first time the United States won three in a single World Championships.
Tamyra Mensah-StockHer 68 kg gold in Tokyo made her the first African-American woman to win an Olympic wrestling title and only the second American woman to win one.
Heaven FitchIn 2020 she won North Carolina's 1A 106-pound title, the first girl to win a boys' state championship in that state.
Sarah HildebrandtHer 50 kg gold in Paris in 2024 came nine years after her first WCWA title at King, the college-to-Olympic path this sport did not have when she started.
Amit ElorShe won the 68 kg gold in Paris at twenty, the youngest American wrestler to win an Olympic title.
Audrey JimenezShe won an Arizona boys' state title at 106 pounds in 2024, then the 110-pound title at the first NCAA women's championship in 2026, with the Outstanding Wrestler award.
Kennedy BladesOlympic silver at 76 kg in Paris in 2024, then the 160-pound title at the first NCAA championship in Coralville.
Kylie WelkerThe first commit in Iowa's program history, then two NCWWC titles and the 180-pound title at the first NCAA championship.
Bella MirHer fall at 2:26 in the 145-pound final in 2026 was the first pin in an NCAA women's wrestling final.
Keep reading
The dated version of this story is the history of women's wrestling, and the full record is every profile on the site.
Photo credits
Photographer and outlet for each photo above. The license each one is used under is printed on that wrestler's own page.
- Tricia Saunders: Photo courtesy of Tricia Saunders, via The Communicator (Community High School, Ann Arbor)
- Clarissa Chun: Marie-Lan Nguyen
- Tela O'Donnell: Tim Hipps, U.S. Army
- Michaela Hutchison: Peninsula Clarion
- Ali Bernard: Larry Slater, via Augsburg University Athletics
- Victoria Anthony: John Sachs, Tech-Fall.com
- Helen Maroulis: Tim Hipps, U.S. Army IMCOM
- Adeline Gray: Tabercil
- Jacarra Winchester: Larry Slater
- Tamyra Mensah-Stock: Ministry of Youth and Sports of Ukraine
- Heaven Fitch: Dean Strickland, HighSchoolOT
- Sarah Hildebrandt: Jørgen Løken
- Amit Elor: USA Wrestling
- Audrey Jimenez: USA Wrestling
- Kennedy Blades: Nick Rohlman, The Gazette
- Kylie Welker: Jørgen Løken
- Bella Mir: Nick Rohlman, The Gazette
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