U.S. Olympic wrestling team 2024: Helen Maroulis and Kyle Snyder headline roster
The U.S. Olympic wrestling team was chosen through the 2024 Olympic wrestling trials in State College, Pennsylvania, on 19-20 April.
Get to know the wrestlers who are nominated to represent the United States at the Olympic Games Paris 2024.
As National Olympic Committees have the exclusive authority for the representation of their respective countries at the Olympic Games, athletes' participation at the Paris Games depends on their NOC selecting them to represent their delegation at Paris 2024.
Men’s freestyle
Kyle Dake – 74 kg
Five-time world champion, four-time NCAA champion – is there anything Kyle Dake hasn’t done? Well, win an Olympic gold medal, and now he has that chance. Dake won bronze at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 in 2021. He’s had to face tough competition just to make it to the U.S. team over the years, first battling Jordan Burroughs and then Jason Nolf. Now he gets to take that preparation to Paris.
Aaron Brooks – 86 kg
Wrestlers often say, “Iron sharpens iron” when talking about their training. The best wrestlers seek out the toughest competition in wrestling rooms to ensure they’ll be ready come match day. Brooks’ win over 2020 Olympic gold medalist David Taylor bears that saying out. He’s a four-time NCAA champion out of Penn State, training with Nittany Lion Wrestling Club members Dake, Snyder, and even Taylor. That training is what helped Brooks make it to the Olympic team just a month after winning his fourth collegiate title.
Kyle Snyder – 97 kg
Snyder has been at the top of 97 kg for so long that it’s easy to take him for granted. You shouldn’t. He is set to be a three-time Olympian, and he has gold and bronze from his two previous Olympic trips. At 28, Snyder continues to get better because he continues to seek out tougher competition, like moving to the Nittany Lion Wrestling Club where he wrestles with people like Dake, Brooks, Snyder, Taylor, and the Penn State head coach and 2004 Olympic gold medalist Cael Sanderson.
Mason Parris – 125 kg
The only freestyle men’s team member not to come out of the Nittany Lion Wrestling Club, Parris will be going to his first Olympics. Like Brooks, he’s not long out of college, winning the NCAA title for Michigan in 2023. He also won bronze at the 2023 Worlds.
Women’s freestyle
Sarah Hildebrandt – 50 kg
Hildebrandt will head to her second Olympic Games this year. She has a bronze medal from Tokyo 2020 in 2021, as well as two silver and two bronze medals from the world championships. She’s in search of the one color she doesn’t have: gold.
Dominique Parrish – 53 kg
Even years seem to be better for Parrish than the odd ones. In 2022, she won gold at the world and Pan American championships. In 2023, she was eliminated in her first match at the world championships. Considering her 2024 has begun with Parrish making the U.S. Olympic team, perhaps that situation has turned.
Helen Maroulis – 57 kg
Maroulis just keeps making history. Her latest feat is becoming the first U.S. female wrestler to make three Olympic teams. She had a dominant Olympic trials, winning with a pin and a 6-0 decision over Jacarra Winchester. She will look at add to her medal collection, and make more history, in Paris.
Kayla Miracle – 62 kg
Soon to be a two-time Olympian, Miracle will have the chance to improve her finish. She took 12th at Tokyo 2020, then won two world silvers.
Amit Elor – 68 kg
If you haven’t paid attention to wrestling since the last Olympic Games, you might not know Elor. It’s time to learn about her. Elor is a two-time world champion. Outside of forfeits in Tunisia in July of 2022, she hasn’t lost a match on the mat since a cadet tournament in 2019.
Kennedy Blades – 76 kg
At just 20 years old, Blades is part of the next generation of women’s wrestlers in the U.S. She beat six-time world champion Adeline Gray to earn her spot on the Olympic team, using a style that Gray called “explosive.”
Greco-Roman
Payton Jacobson – 87 kg
The U.S. Olympic Trials are designed to make life easier on wrestlers who have already had success for the U.S, giving byes to world medalists, for example. That didn’t matter to Jacobson. He jumped up a weight class to 87 kg as USA had not secured a quota in 77 kg. He was the seventh seed for the challenge tournament. But he still won, earning a spot on his first Olympic team.
Joe Rau – 97 kg
Persistence has finally paid off for Joe Rau. He’s a three-time world team member who came so close to making the Olympic teams two times before. For Rio 2016, Rau won trials, but did not secure a quota for the weight class. In 2020, he obtained a quota for 87 kg, but then lost at Olympic team trials. Now at 33 years old, he’s made it onto the Olympic team.
Adam Coon 130 kg
Coon has stayed near the top of the wrestling world since graduating from Michigan, winning a world silver in 2018. But he’s also tried his hand at American football, signing a training camp contract with the NFL's Tennessee Titans in 2021, and playing briefly in the XFL before returning to wrestling full time, and then making the Olympic team.