Hildebrandt Bronze, Team USA Women Finish with 4 Medals
Sarah Hildebrandt earned Team USA women’s 4th medal at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Photo courtesy of Tony Rotundo / WrestlersAreWarriors.com
by Derek Levendusky
Twitter: @AWWderek
Sarah Hildebrandt bounced back from her heartbreaking loss in the semis to win the bronze medal in Tokyo and add to Team USA women’s medal count, making the final tally four. U.S. women had never earned more than two medals in any Olympic Games previously, and had only five total coming into this Olympics. Team USA men and women combined for nine medals. To contrast, they only had three combined medals in Rio and Maroulis was the sole medal for the women.
Team USA women finish second in team race, second only to Japan.
In the bronze match, Hildebrandt gave up a shot clock point on what seemed to be subjective and senseless passivity calls, then scored late in the first on a swing single right at the buzzer to go up 2-1 at the break. She earned another 2 on a hard snap down from front head position with a quick pitch-by at the 1:00 mark. Up 4-1, she put the dagger in near the end of the second with a final single leg attack and transition to her signature lace to get three turns and a tech fall for bronze. Hildebrandt withered with tears of joy in her coach’s arms after the match, overjoyed—and maybe relieved—that she’ll be bringing a medal home from Tokyo.
After storming her way to the semis, U.S. 50 kg rep Sarah Hildebrandt lost in heartbreaking fashion in the semis. Facing China’s Sun Yanan, who placed 5that Worlds in 2019, Hildebrandt went ahead 7-0 after a leg attack, several leg laces, and a caution point. But her Chinese opponent scored 10 unanswered points, including a big 4-point lateral drop in the final seconds to win the bout 10-7, sending Hildebrandt to the bronze match tomorrow morning.
Indiana native Hildebrandt dominated her way to the semis, using the same script in her first two matches, with leg attacks and nasty leg laces to score two straight tech falls.
Japan’s Yui Susaki won Hildebrandt’s weight class in dominating fashion, teching her way to the gold medal, including a semifinal win over 2019 world champion Mariya Stadnik.