PARIS — The most unusual day of Sarah Hildebrandt’s wrestling career ended with her earning an Olympic gold medal.
The American won the 50-kilogram women’s category Wednesday, defeating Yusneylis Guzman Lopez of Cuba 3-0 in the championship match to become the fourth U.S. woman to win a gold medal.
For a while, she thought she wouldn’t even have a gold medal match.
Vinesh Phogat of India appeared to reach the finals of the 50-kilogram category after three wins Tuesday. But United World Wrestling, the sport’s governing body, disqualified her after she barely missed weight Wednesday morning.
Measures such as cutting Phogat’s hair weren’t enough to shed the necessary weight. Team India said Phogat was 100 grams — about a fifth of a pound — over the weight limit.
Hildebrandt originally thought she had won gold by forfeit. Instead, Guzman Lopez, who had lost to Phogat in a semifinal, was moved up from a bronze medal match.
“There was a lot of celebrating,” the 30-year-old Hildebrandt said. “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 stunned four-time world and defending Olympic champion Yui Susaki of Japan in the first of her three matches Tuesday, would have been the first women’s wrestler from India to compete for a gold medal. Instead, she left empty-handed.
“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 eventually earned a bronze medal with a 10-0 win over Oksana Livach of Ukraine.
Hildebrandt, a bronze medalist in Tokyo, said her most unusual wrestling experience before Wednesday was a power outage that caused a championship match to start 30 minutes late.
“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.”
United World Wrestling’s decision brought calls to add weight classes and shined a light on the dangers of weight-cutting.
Dinshaw Pardiwala, chief medical officer for India’s team, said in a statement that wrestlers usually participate in a weight category below their natural weight because it gives them the advantage of facing opponents who naturally are smaller. Wrestlers often regain weight quickly after weigh-ins.
One reason weight-cutting for the Olympics is extra difficult is that there are just six weight classes as opposed to 10 for other international competitions. With the wider gap in weights, that often leads to more extreme measures being taken.
American Jordan Burroughs, a six-time world champion who won Olympic gold in 2012, lashed out against Olympic organizers on social media.
“Maybe stories like this will wake up the (International Olympic Committee),” Burroughs said, “Wrestling needs MORE than six weight classes! After three tough matches against world class opponents, no athlete should have to spend the night preparing for a Gold medal in this manner.”
American Amit Elor, who won a gold medal Tuesday, rolled through the 68 kg field and dominated as she has for the past two years. Her toughest opponent was the scale.
“It’s been a difficult process,” Elor said Tuesday after winning. “And personally, I really hope that in the future there will be more weight classes for the Olympics. An Olympic year is challenging because we often have to battle our teammates. And not only that, but we have to make adjustments with our body sometimes having to gain or lose weight and that can affect our performance and our wrestling. And so this year has been quite a challenge for me.”
Hildebrandt agreed that there should be more weight classes, but for now, she said weight-cutting comes with the territory. She said she had to cut weight, and her process went well.
“It sucks,” Hildebrandt said. “But also, at the end of the day, this is definitely part of the job. And we all gotta get it done.”