In terms of tune-ups for Tokyo, the last outing didn’t produce the results Helen Maroulis wanted, but it was a tournament she felt she needed. 

The three-time World and Olympic champ went to Poland eight weeks ago with a banged-up knee and a layer of international competitive rust. She came home with one quick win, a couple un-Helen-like losses and a road map for where she needed to go during the stretch run to Tokyo. 

“My wrestling and my faith are very intertwined and I’ll just really kind of trust my intuition and I’ll trust guidance, and I felt like the hardest ask of myself was to go to Poland knowing where I was at and knowing that you might show the world this is not a great version of yourself or your wrestling, but this is necessary to be prepared for the way you need to be in Tokyo,” Maroulis said. “I believe I’ll always do whatever it is, whatever I need to ask of myself, I’ll do it and I’ll come through. Poland was necessary. I’m so thankful I went because a lot of stuff just got out there and it really helped me to kind of tap back into some things I remembered about how I used to compete on the international stage because really my last full international tournament was in 2017 at the World Championships. 

“Honestly, that tournament (in Poland) showed me so much and it’s helped me make so many adjustments and I have so much confidence going into these Games really because I went there and I challenged myself against the best in the world. And then health-wise, now my knee’s great and I’m just really happy to be here.” 

It’s been a two-month sprint for Maroulis to recalibrate and get herself primed for Tokyo after coming home from Poland, where she dropped a 13-0 technical superiority against three-time World medalist Odunayo Adekuoroye of Nigeria and an 8-2 decision against Ukraine’s Tetyana Kit. 

She uprooted herself for the stretch run, leaving the Nittany Lion Wrestling Club to train in Phoenix with the Sunkist Kids. 

“It was kind of all business,” Sunkist coach Mark Perry said. “I think it was just getting her back to do what you do — and do it better. You’ve got to do it better. This isn’t 2016, it’s 2021. She knows how to do it, she’s done it plenty of times, we’ve seen it — recently. Just go perform at the highest level you ever have. It’s really that simple. … I expect her to show up.” 

Maroulis set the bar in orbit when she strung together three consecutive World and Olympic titles. She turned the World Championships into a drill session, outscoring the opposition by a combined 86-0 count in 2015 and 2017. In between, she conquered one of the sport’s all-time greats in Rio, stunning Japan’s Saori Yoshida, a 13-time World champ who was aiming for her fourth Olympic gold. 

The last three years, however, have been lined with potholes that have prevented Maroulis from showcasing her vast skill set and adding to her international medal count. 

“You know the saying: You can’t step in the same river twice,” she said. “This quad has definitely been completely, 100-percent different. Last quad I felt like I had the whole four years to zone in and this one, I was still focused, it just maybe didn’t look like that from the outside because I had a lot of injuries and a lot of things to face, but I think taking care of your health, taking care of your body, taking care of yourself as a person, that will translate on the mat. 

“And so it really just allowed me to be the best version of myself and to have to learn to train in different ways and listen to my body and really just grow. I’m very thankful for that.” 

Whether all of that manifests itself in another Olympic medal is a matter that will be determined this week in Tokyo. Maroulis is scheduled to take the mat on Wednesday when competition begins in the 57-kilogram class, which might be the most star-studded women’s freestyle field. She opens the tournament against 2018 World champ Ningning Rong of China. 

The bracket also includes four-time World and Olympic champ Risako Kawai of Japan, Olympic silver medalist Valeria Koblova of Russia, World medalists Iryna Kurachkina of Belarus and Adekuoroye, and a host of other high-caliber performers. 

Then there’s Maroulis, who, at her best, is capable of beating them all. 

“I think she’s great,” Perry said. “It really just comes down to where she is in her own head. From where she was wrestling on Day 1 to when we left Phoenix, people don’t do those things. Now from there to here, make the same jump and compete that way. She’s a multiple-time World and Olympic champion for a reason. She’s unique and special and when the lights are on she knows how to show up.” 

Gophers Planning On Gable’s Return

It’s been a month since Gable Steveson made an announcement that served as a prelude to a more important announcement. That’s when the Minnesota megatalent tweeted that sometime after the Games he’ll declare whether he’ll return to the Gophers next season. 

Minnesota coach Brandon Eggum is planning to have the Hodge Trophy co-winner anchoring the Gopher lineup again next season. 

“That’s our hope and our plan,” Eggum said. “Also for Gable, there’s a big part of him that wants to compete, wrestle for the University and that’s where I think he’s leaning and that’s what I’m hearing from him. I know there’s always opportunities out there that are trying to give him motivation to go their way, but at the end of the day I think he’ll be wrestling for the Gophers for at least another year and for Team USA a few more as well, especially as you look at that quick turnaround for the next Olympics. In a few years, he could do a lot.”

Lalovic Tackles Subject Of Opposition To Olympics  

The first question United World Wrestling president Nenad Lalovic faced Sunday during his news conference at the onset of wrestling at the Olympics dealt with the reported local opposition to the Games in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

"There are always opponents to the Olympic Games everywhere — especially finding many reasons not to have them," he said. "I don’t know if you remember, but (in 2008) in Beijing, we all (were going) to die from pollution. In London, we had been threatened that we would explode together underground. In Rio, we should all have been killed by the Zika mosquito. But it didn’t happen.

“Today we stand together with the media, athletes, National Olympic Committees and countries taking part in this Games, to fight the pandemic. This is the best way — by having the Olympics.

“You mention also the opposition in Japan. I remember there were 350,000 digital signatures against the Games. May I remind you that in 2013 when we had the crisis (when wrestling was on the Olympic chopping block), the Japanese Wrestling Federation collected more than 1 million physical signatures, and I insist on the word physical because people really came and signed. Digital signatures are a little bit easier.

“Certainly that is a politically difficult situation, all the pressure from the opposition and so on, but at the end, all of this has been forgotten when the Games were open and the first medals awarded. All that is behind us and we want to finish the Olympic Games in a bright way. I think nothing can stop us."