Maroulis gets smashed.

[maligned 529]

In the U.S.'s first match of this morning, Helen Maroulis shockingly got dominated and pinned. Her opponent, Kolesnik of Azerbaijan, is a two-time Euro bronze, was 5th last year at world U23's, and finished 11th at the non-Olympic worlds in 2016 in her only previous senior worlds appearance. Kolesnik led 2-1 at the break before Helen scored a quick point to pull even 10 seconds into round 2. On the re-start, Helen shot in and got crossface/wizzer/pancaked straight to her back, where she fought for about 30 seconds before getting pinned.

Not sure what happened at all. To refresh everyone's memory, she won worlds last year while tech-ing every opponent without yielding a single point.

Edited October 24, 2018 by maligned

[olddirty 346]

She shot straight on and didnt cut an angle.  The girl hipped in and planted her right on her ass.  She wouldnt concede the 2 and got hit in one of the toughest moves to bridge out of which is an over under with the legs scissored.  I wouldnt call it dominated, it was tied and she made an error.

[nom 1,193]

I’d suggest that her training routine was suboptimal.  I’m sure you’ve heard the backstory.

[maligned 529]

7 minutes ago, olddirty said:

 I wouldnt call it dominated, it was tied and she made an error.

I suppose I'm overstating it, but it felt that way considering who it was and the fact that Kolesnik was the one showing effective offense, scoring the only two takedowns, and hitting a big-time match-ending move in the 4 minutes of action it ended up being.

[maligned 529]

7 minutes ago, nom said:

I’d suggest that her training routine was suboptimal.  I’m sure you’ve heard the backstory.

Yes, I do. I'm sure you're right, but it still seems strange. Maybe you could imagine 8-1 instead of a first-period tech, but not this.

[Housebuye 2,438]

Maroulis is out

clearly something is wrong. She had two major changes

1. Bad concussion. She thought she might never wrestle again

2. Falling out with her coach

i hope it was more from 2 than 1

She will come back stronger

[CA_Wrestler 328]

2 hours ago, Housebuye said:

Maroulis is out

clearly something is wrong. She had two major changes

1. Bad concussion. She thought she might never wrestle again

2. Falling out with her coach

i hope it was more from 2 than 1

She will come back stronger

When I first heard about her moving back to So Cal to train, I had a feeling that she could possibly move out to AZ and join her long time friend, Victoria Anthony at ASU and since she's with the Sunkist Kids, it makes sense.

[wrestlingnerd 3,004]

What happened with her coach? I thought there wasn't a falling out, that scheduling issues caused her coaches absence leading up to worlds.

[gromit 494]

Here's a recent video interview with her thoughts on the loss, her injury & preparation (she didn't let anyone touch her head during training).  Also very touching when Bader asked about possible retirement...her response after she regains her composure is awesome....she's such a great ambassador for the sport!

 

Edited October 24, 2018 by gromit

[TBar1977 4,538]

That is hard to watch. Helen is a Champion and always will be a champion. Whatever she decides, nothing changes. Still a Champion. 

[Gantry 1,872]

44 minutes ago, TBar1977 said:

That is hard to watch. Helen is a Champion and always will be a champion. Whatever she decides, nothing changes. Still a Champion. 

Well said TBar...

Edited October 24, 2018 by Gantry

[MadMardigain 1,605]

14 hours ago, nom said:

I’d suggest that her training routine was suboptimal.  I’m sure you’ve heard the backstory.

I’d say the lack of training, conditioning, focusing etc. played a roll in this one, along with the worry of getting knocked around to much in the match.  Maybe (hopefully) the injury itself wasn’t the issue.   But not being able to prepare like usually may have led her to put herself in a position she normally wouldn’t have been in.  

Edited October 24, 2018 by MadMardigain

[jcjcjc 122]

Head injuries are hard to deal with; I can't imagine how much pressure there is on her knowing that how she handles hers will determine so many others' mindsets moving forward. 

[de4856 371]

Well I was really irritated when I first saw this shorter version of this video posted by Flo on Instagram. I'm a little calmer now, but I still don't like to see the video. As I said in my Instagram post,  I did not think the video was appropriate because it did not serve any real purpose other than let a bunch of people watch a young woman break down because what she has had to go through this past year, (struggling to get right with this issue of her brain injury, and choices she had to make regarding her training, and lastly feeling terrible about her performance). 

I know some will say, it shows the raw emotion, I bet most of us have seen raw emotion before, so I'm not buying that. 

Some may say oh, the video creates sympathy for Helen, please we already have sympathy for her, everyone that has been following her knows at least something of her situation, and we all know how much these wrestlers have invested in an event like this. 

Anyway, I don't really know it this tournament was an outlier or not, what I do know is that a lot of top wrestlers did not place or do well in this event, and the reasons are probably numerous. But as far as Helen goes, I obviously wish she would've done better for her own piece of mind, but I also know that she has a life after competition, and if this is her final time we see her compete, I wish her well, and I will know that she was one of the best. 

[CA_Wrestler 328]

On 10/24/2018 at 8:37 AM, wrestlingnerd said:

What happened with her coach? I thought there wasn't a falling out, that scheduling issues caused her coaches absence leading up to worlds.

No idea.  I was just guessing that Valentin told her not to come back this year.  I remember when Pico was in HS, Valentin told him to not jump to senior level even though Pico wanted to really bad.  Pico wrestled Juniors that year instead.

Edited October 25, 2018 by CA_Wrestler

[Housebuye 2,438]

They had a falling out. I don’t know the details. Seems like they want to keep it quiet. 

[jcjcjc 122]

22 hours ago, de4856 said:

Well I was really irritated when I first saw this shorter version of this video posted by Flo on Instagram. I'm a little calmer now, but I still don't like to see the video. As I said in my Instagram post,  I did not think the video was appropriate because it did not serve any real purpose other than let a bunch of people watch a young woman break down because what she has had to go through this past year, (struggling to get right with this issue of her brain injury, and choices she had to make regarding her training, and lastly feeling terrible about her performance). 

I know some will say, it shows the raw emotion, I bet most of us have seen raw emotion before, so I'm not buying that. 

Some may say oh, the video creates sympathy for Helen, please we already have sympathy for her, everyone that has been following her knows at least something of her situation, and we all know how much these wrestlers have invested in an event like this. 

Anyway, I don't really know it this tournament was an outlier or not, what I do know is that a lot of top wrestlers did not place or do well in this event, and the reasons are probably numerous. But as far as Helen goes, I obviously wish she would've done better for her own piece of mind, but I also know that she has a life after competition, and if this is her final time we see her compete, I wish her well, and I will know that she was one of the best. 

We only know her situation because of interviews like the one you are talking about, but you also want the interview that you are talking about to not exist...how does one lead a horse by a cart? 

I showed this interview to my wrestling team: some of them knew Maroulis and love her, many of them didn't know her just like they don't know Gilman or Gwiz. The interview inspired them to be great teammates. Why ask the question and do the interview? Why wrestle? Why tell your spouse you love them? The answer: Taking a look at the feelings of people who influence you allows you to better understand the struggles they have and better prepares you to better serve them directly or better prepare yourself to prepare for similar struggles.