PARIS — Sarah Hildebrandt stood in the middle of a media throng Wednesday night with a big bottle of water in one hand, a chocolate muffin in the other and an ear-to-ear smile as she began recounting a life-changing day. 

The Indiana native woke up preparing for one opponent, thought for an hour or so that she’d won the Olympic title by forfeit, quickly had to reset for a different matchup and ended the night with a gold medal around her neck after defeating Cuba’s Yusneylys Guzman 3-0 in the 50-kilogram title bout. 

“I’ve dreamt of this moment for so long and I feel like my mind and body aren’t computing everything, especially with the chaotic morning I had with the change of opponents,” Hildebrandt said. “It’s crazy.”

Hildebrandt’s morning began with what she said was “the smoothest weight cut” of her life. She went to bed Tuesday night needing to shed half a kilogram to make weight for the 50-kilogram Olympic title bout and woke up four-tenths of a kilo lighter. 

A quick sweat and she was off to the scale for weigh-ins. 

And that’s where things took a bizarre turn. 

Her scheduled opponent — Vinesh Phogat of India — was a no-show at weigh-ins. A day after making international headlines for pulling off one of the biggest upsets in Olympic wrestling history when she handed Japan’s Yui Susaki her first career international loss, Phogat was disqualified from the tournament for not making weight. 

According to reports out of India, Phogat got within 100 grams of scratch weight but couldn’t shed the last .22 pounds necessary to preserve at least a silver medal and give herself an opportunity to try to become the first Indian woman to win an Olympic gold in any sport. 

“As a big weight-cutter myself, I feel for her,” Hildebrandt said. “She had an amazing day (Tuesday), did an insane feat and I don't think she saw that happening — ending her Olympics like that — so, for sure, my heart goes out to her. She’s an amazing competitor, an amazing wrestler and person. It sucks, but at the end of the day it’s part of the job. We’ve all got to get it done, as shitty as it is, and I make sure my weight cut is in line, and it’s something I invest a lot of time in and it obviously pays off in the end.” 

Hildebrandt momentarily thought Phogat would be forfeiting the gold medal match and she’d become an Olympic champion by default. 

“I was getting (that information) from multiple sources,” she said. 

Hildebrandt said her family was getting ready to pop the cork on celebratory champagne bottles. An hour later, they learned Phogat would be dropped to last place in the bracket and replaced in the finals by Guzman, the wrestler she beat in the semifinals. 

“I was preparing for chaos,” Hildebrandt said. “But that was not on my bingo card of chaos.”

'She's The Most Disciplined Person I've Seen'

Fifty kilograms. 

It’s been Hildebrandt’s weight in the United States since she descended to women’s freestyle’s lightest Olympic category in 2019 to help USA Wrestling avoid a lightweight logjam with World champion Jacarra Winchester and four-time World and Olympic champ Helen Maroulis also possibly vying for the same 53-kilogram spot.

At first, it seemed like a big stretch to those who watched Hildebrandt begin her Senior-level career at 55 kilograms. 

“I was like, ‘No way,’” said Hildebrandt’s brother, Drew, who served as her training partner for Paris. “Dude, she’s tall and lanky. Us Hildebrandts are tall and lanky for wrestlers. But if anybody can do it, it’s Sarah. She’s so disciplined with her weight cut. Once I saw how disciplined she was, I was like, ‘She’s going to do it.’ 

“She’s the most disciplined person I’ve seen in my life and easily the best weight cutter. She’s been so focused. I can’t wait to watch her get to eat whatever she wants. She’s got a list and there’s probably two thousand things on the list. Anytime she sees something I’m eating or another family member is, she’ll write it down on the list. Little things like putting milk in her coffee or a little extra salt. She can eat all the seasoned food now. She’s really going to enjoy whatever ice cream she wants.”

This is the payoff for four years of extreme discipline and commitment in pursuit of international wrestling’s biggest prize. 

Hildebrandt’s been at the doorstep. She claimed an Olympic bronze in Tokyo and three more World medals since then at 50 kilos. 

“I did not have any intentions of wrestling after Tokyo — even after I won the bronze medal I was like, ‘I’m done,’” she said. “(USA Wrestling staff) needed to know if I was going to the World Championships in 2021 and I was like, ‘Heck no.’ I went on a run and had this moment where I was like, ‘Yeah, go to the World Championships.’ I medaled there, so I had the finals spot (at 2022 Final X), it was a short quad, so I was like, ‘We’re going to do this.’ But I had some changes to make.”

She tried to be more human and less mechanical. She allowed herself “to feel things.” 

“I thought it was a weakness to let myself feel any emotions,” she said. “It took all the humanness out of me until I was just a machine and then when I lost I felt like I was nothing. There’s no Sarah in my wrestling. It was stale. I felt like I had dammed up all of my feelings and after Tokyo it released.”

Hildebrandt committed to changes on the weight management side as well. She said she began implementing her plan for Paris back in 2022.

“I was like, ‘Everything I do from here on out is going to feed into 2024,’” she said. “It’s going to be uncomfortable in 2023, I’m going to want to make changes and I’m going to want to do something more comfortable for the moment, but I have to stay strong so I can have a great cut for 2024 in Paris, and I’m so happy to say I had the smoothest cut of my life and it paid off — all the sacrifices and planning ahead.” 

There’s a different kind of planning ahead now with a new set of questions to answer. What will she do with the $250,000 prize coming her way from the Living the Dream Medal Fund? Will she continue to compete? Is Los Angeles in 2028 a possibility?

“That’s so far away,” Hildebrandt said. “I have a lot of food to eat between now and then.”