MAROULIS Helen Louise

General
CONCUSSION AND PTSD
She experienced long-term concussion symptoms after first sustaining a concussion in January 2018, which led to her briefly retiring from the sport in 2019. She suffered fatigue, sensitivity to light and sound, severe vertigo, and was eventually diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder [PTSD]. "I would have these episodes where I would hyperventilate, shake and cry. Being in a bright room would give me severe headaches, sometimes anxiety attacks. I was pretty much afraid to live life at that point. It just didn't make sense that the sport I'd loved since I was a little girl had been replaced by these horrible memories and these symptoms. I had a really impactful conversation with my mum, and the thing for me was I didn't want to retire, but I also didn't want to risk my health." She was sidelined for eight months after undergoing shoulder surgery in November 2018, which gave her time to recover from her PTSD. "That [shoulder injury] was a real blessing in disguise because that also was time for me to heal. I train differently now. It's always about my health. There are certain things I will never push through. It's not about feeling you must do whatever it takes to get a medal. I love wrestling and I feel better now [July 2020] than ever." (teamusa.org, 27 Dec 2020; si.com, 31 Jul 2020; abcnews.go, 02 Jan 2020; olympics.nbcsports.com, 21 May 2019; Eastbay YouTube channel, 26 Oct 2020)

EARLY DAYS
She began wrestling against boys as a child and said she was treated differently by coaches because she was a girl. "I started wrestling when I was seven. People's reactions were, 'Good job, you're trying hard'. When I started getting good at wrestling and beating the boys then it was, 'You don't belong here, girls can't wrestle, you shouldn't be here'. I spent my whole life being on a boys team. Coaches would put their best guys on me. Three guys, trying to hurt me so I wouldn't come back. It was hard for them to believe that a girl could do what a guy could do. It's a macho, manly sport. I wouldn't want that experience for any girl, for sure, but I used that experience to help shape me. Those were challenges that primed me." She said attitudes changed when women's wrestling became an Olympic sport in 2004, when she was age 13. (gazette.net, 21 Dec 2005; si.com, 31 Jul 2020; Eastbay YouTube channel, 26 Oct 2020)

GREEK HERITAGE
Her father was born in Greece and moved to the United States of America when he was a boy. She became well-known on his home island of Kalamos, Greece after winning the gold medal at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, with the Greek government putting her image on a postage stamp to honour her achievement. She visited the island after her win. "Everyone on the island, all the people came down cheering her as the boat came in," her father Yiannis said. "Church bells were ringing, horns honking. I left this island when I was a little boy, and here comes my daughter, back to the island where I was born. They really love her there." (si.com, 31 Jul 2020)

At the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro she became the first female US wrestler to win an Olympic gold medal in the sport. (SportsDeskOnline, 01 Jan 2020)