We learn a lot about sacrifices made by athletes in pursuit of Olympic glory, and new gold medalist Helen Maroulis may take the cake.
Mostly because she hasn’t taken the cake.
Maroulis, 24, beat dominant Japanese legend Saori Yoshida on Thursday to win the first U.S. women’s wrestling Olympic gold in history.
NBC’s Nick Zaccardi wrote an fascinating post on what she needed to do to get there following a change in Olympic weight divisions.
Her “walking-around weight” is 130 pounds, and she wrestled at 121. But new Olympic rules forced her to keep an extra five pounds off for competition.