Sarah Hildebrandt, Olympic wrestling gold medalist, eschews fear to end retirement

"That's exactly what I should go do (is come back). I love this sport. I love what it demands of me and what I discover of myself within it. Why would I not extend that for as long as I could?"

Image for USA's Sarah Hildebrandt wins 50kg wrestling gold in Paris

USA’s Sarah Hildebrandt wins 50kg wrestling gold in Paris

At the 2024 Paris Olympics, the United States’ Sarah Hildebrandt wins 50kg freestyle wrestling gold.

At the start of 2026, Hildebrandt began training full-time for a comeback at the U.S. Open from April 23-24.

On the morning of April 23, she lay on the floor and felt awestruck.

"I'm back doing this, and it just was blowing my mind," she said. "I felt so overtaken with gratitude and amazement that this was even possible. I think that was validating in a sense of like, OK, this is where I want to be. But also, there's still work to be done. I'm excited for that, and scared about that, and all of the emotions, really."

She won her first four matches by mercy rule (10-0) to reach the 53kg final against Cristelle Rodriguez.

In that championship match, Rodriguez scored a takedown on Hildebrandt, who sensed something wasn't right inside. Hildebrandt took a step and "felt everything just go." That was the end of her U.S. Open.

She later learned she tore an adductor (in two places off the bone), groin and abdominal muscles on her left side. About a month before the event, she started noticing some pain in that area — enough to modify her training.

Hildebrandt is talking with surgeons to map out the next weeks and months.

"The injury that happened during my finals match at the US Open ain’t pretty and has put an end to the season I hardly even started," she posted on social media.

It's her first long-term injury since dislocating an elbow at the 2017 U.S. Open. Hildebrandt said that pain ended up catapulting her. She won her first world championships medal the next year, starting a run of six medals between the Olympics and worlds over a seven-year span.

"I'm taking (the muscle tears) kind of as a blessing that it's happening this far out from (the 2028) Games still," she said. "We have plenty of time to recover and plenty of time to come back into it all."

Hildebrandt is committed to the comeback. She yearns to return to competition as soon as late 2026, health dictating.

It could be at her U.S. Open weight of 53kg or at her Olympic gold medal weight of 50kg.

She has wrestled in Argentina, Kazakhstan, Japan, Nicaragua and Norway, but never in an international tournament held in the U.S.

She called the LA28 Games, the first Summer Olympics in the U.S. since 1996, "the external goal."

"But of course, it's gonna be moment to moment," she said. "I think I'm just gonna keep gathering more information — physically, mentally, spiritually, all of the things. I came back because I like discovering myself in this sport. It really has been such an amazing teacher and mirror for me. So that's what I'm going to continue doing. However that results, and whatever that looks like, or whatever the expiration date on that is, I'm kind of just purely coming humble to it all. I'm open and just gonna go see. It's very terrifying."

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