The most unusual day of Sarah Hildebrandt’s wrestling career ended with her winning an Olympic gold medal.
Hildebrandt took the top spot in the 50-kilogram women’s category on Wednesday by beating Yusneylis Guzman Lopez of Cuba 3-0 in the final match, becoming the fourth U.S. woman to earn a gold medal.
At one point, she wasn’t sure she would even compete for gold.
Vinesh Phogat of India seemed set to reach the finals after winning three matches on Tuesday. However, she was disqualified by United World Wrestling for missing the weight limit on Wednesday morning.
Attempts to cut Phogat’s weight, like cutting her hair, weren’t enough. Team India reported that Phogat was 100 grams—about a fifth of a pound—over the limit.
Hildebrandt initially thought she had won gold by default. But instead, Guzman Lopez, who had lost to Phogat in the semifinals, was promoted from the bronze medal match.
“There was a lot of celebrating,” said the 30-year-old Hildebrandt. “It was very strange. ‘Oh my God, I just won the Olympics.’ And then an hour later, it was like, psych, you did not win the Olympics. I was like, ‘Oh, this is very weird.’ So there had to be a reset.”
Phogat, who had stunned four-time world and defending Olympic champion Yui Susaki of Japan in her first match on Tuesday, would have been the first Indian woman to compete for a gold medal. Instead, she went home without a medal.
“As a big weight cutter myself, yeah, I feel for her,” Hildebrandt said. “She had an amazing day yesterday, did an insane feat, and, you know, I don’t think she saw that happening, ending her Olympics like that.
So for sure, my heart goes out to her. I think she’s an amazing competitor, an amazing wrestler, and person.”
Susaki went on to win a bronze medal with a 10-0 victory over Oksana Livach of Ukraine.
Hildebrandt, who won a bronze medal in Tokyo, said her previous wildest wrestling experience was a power outage that delayed a championship match by 30 minutes.
“So this tops that,” she said. “But yeah, that was definitely the most insane thing. I don’t even know. Craziness. At a loss of words for once.”
The decision by United World Wrestling led to discussions about adding more weight classes and highlighted the risks of cutting weight.
Dinshaw Pardiwala, the chief medical officer for India’s team, explained that wrestlers often compete in a lower weight class than their natural weight to face smaller opponents, as it gives them an advantage. Wrestlers usually regain weight quickly after the weigh-ins.
Weight-cutting for the Olympics is particularly challenging because there are only six weight classes, compared to 10 in other international events. This larger gap in weight classes often leads to more extreme weight-cutting practices.
